Cylindrical shell buckling: A characterization of localization and periodicity

Abstract

A hypothesis for the prediction of the circumferential wavenumber of buckling of the thin axially-compressed cylindrical shell is presented, based on the addition of a length effect to the classical (Koiter circle) critical load result. Checks against physical and numerical experiments, both by direct comparison of wavenumbers and via a scaling law, provide strong evidence that the hypothesis is correct.