Buckling of thin-walled cylinders: experimental and numerical investigation

Abstract

Thin-walled structures, also known as shells, combine light weight with high strength and are used in a diverse range of fields including aerospace engineering, civil engineering and chemical engineering. Common applications of these shells include oil and gas storage tanks, powder or liquid storage tanks in pharmaceutical plants as well as airplane frames and ship bodies. Although these thin-walled shells have a wide variety of uses, this research is motivated by storage tank collapse in the process industry. Thin-walled cylindrical tanks common in the food and biotechnology sectors are prone to buckling (or inward collapse) due to accidentally induced internal vacuum. During the sterilisation process, steam can condense, causing a reduction in volume. This results in an equivalent increase in external pressure, triggering collapse, or buckling of the tank. Such a collapse, if it occurs, tends to be catastrophic resulting in the complete destruction of the vessel (see Fig.1). Notwithstanding ...