The Effect of Imperfections on the Buckling of Cylindrical Shells

Citation

Imbert, Jean-François (1971) The Effect of Imperfections on the Buckling of Cylindrical Shells. Engineer's thesis, California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/RHXA-BJ33. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-05012008-155801

Abstract

A theoretical investigation of the effect of general imperfections on the buckling of a cylindrical shell under axial compression was carried out. A limit point analysis was performed to determine the buckling loads using a simplified imperfection and displacement model consisting of one axisymmetric and two asymmetric components with the same circumferential wave number. The wave number dependence of imperfections for a class of shells obtained by the same manufacturing processes was characterized by using an imperfection model to fit the experimental imperfection coefficients available. Buckling load calculations were performed using both experimental and fitted data as imperfection coefficients. For the experimental data available the three-mode solution was found to have only a small additional effect with respect to the two-mode solution. In addition, by extrapolating imperfection coefficients for high wave numbers by means of the imperfection model, it was found that a strong interaction effect would exist between a low wave number axisymmetric mode and two classical asymmetric modes.

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