Stability of 3D braided composite cylindrical shells

3-D braided structures of composite material are widely used in the fields of aviation, spaceflight and defense for their excellent performance. A MSC/NASTRAN (large-scale finite analysis software) is therefore introduced for the analysis of a 3-D braided cylindrical shell structure with damage, and the factors having effect on the stability of these shell structures, such as braid angle and damage degree in particular, are given with numerical results. It is concluded that braid angle, local damage and global damage all have a significant effect on the stability of composite material shells.