Flexible hinges in orthotropic cylindrical shells facilitated by nonlinear elastic deformations

Flexible hinges enable the design of folding structures without using mechanisms by making use intrinsic structural characteristics in action folding. This technology introduces potential benefits including weight reduction, omission lubrication and potentially better system reliability. To achieve such technology, we exploit a well-known instability characteristic thin-walled under bending: Brazier effect. Composite materials play key role this problem since they critical load for to be tuned. Moreover, minimisation moment is material dependent, offering extra degrees freedom morphing purposes. The present work considers providing insights on its dependency. For purpose, an analytical solution cylindrical shells made unidirectional laminates empirical expression useful purposes, comprising 4-ply symmetric laminates, are presented with validation accomplished finite element analysis.