Canonical formulation and numerical approach for the static response of functionally graded porous axisymmetric cylindrical shells

This study investigates the static response of functionally graded porous (FGP) cylindrical shells, considering three distinct porosity distribution configurations: uniform, symmetric, and non-symmetric. The material is assumed to be heterogeneous in the direction of the shell thickness. The minimum total potential energy is used to obtain the governing equations based on both Reissner–Mindlin and Kirchhoff–Love shell theories. The principal contributions of this study are: (i) the formulation of the governing equations for FGP cylindrical shells in canonical form, and (ii) the application of the complementary functions method (CFM) to evaluate their static response. To ensure the validity of the results, a comparative analysis is conducted against data generated using ANSYS. Results confirm that the proposed method provides highly accurate solutions for this class of problems. A series of parametric studies demonstrates the effects of porosity coefficient, boundary conditions, porosity distribution types, thickness-to-radius ratio, and theoretical model on the structural response of FGP cylindrical shells. The results obtained in this work may serve as alternative benchmark solutions for future research on computational methodologies and the design optimization of FGP structures.