Buckling of elastoplastic circular cylindrical shells under axial compression

Abstract

The buckling behavior of elastoplastic circular cylindrical shells under axial compression was investigated analytically and experimentally. For analysis, a finite element code based on the updated Lagrangian formulation was established to analyze the axial buckling problem by considering nonlinear geometric and material properties. An iterative displacement-controlled scheme was adopted in the solution procedure to avoid numerical instability near the buckling load. The ratios of diameter to thickness considered were between 25 and 400. A compressive testing machine was used to perform the axial buckling experiments. The ratios of diameter to thickness of the aluminum specimens were 100 and 133. It was found that the buckling strength was reduced by variations of initial thickness along the axis of the cylindrical shell. The ratio of length to diameter and the boundary conditions had little influence on the buckling loads, but caused varied postbuckling behavior.