Computerized Buckling Analysis of Shells

Abstract

The purpose of the many examples of buckling presented here is to give the reader a physical feel for shell buckling. Section 1 contains a brief description of two kinds of buckling, collapse and bifrucation. Section 2 concerns shell structures in which the cause of failure is nonlinear collapse due to either large deflections or to both large deflections and nonlinear material behavior. Section 3 gives examples of axisymmetric shells in which failure is due to bifurcation buckling. Section 4 provides examples that illustrate the effects of boundary conditions and eccentric loading on bifurcation buckling of shells of revolution. Section 5 is devoted to combined loading of cylindrical shells and nonsymmetric loading of shells of revolution. Section 6 is on bifurcation buckling and collapse of ring-stiffened shells with emphasis given to cylindrical shells. Section 7 contains several illustrations of buckling of prismatic shells and panels, that is, structures that have a cross section that is constant in one of the coordinate directions. Section 8 focuses on the sensitivity of predicted buckling loads to initial geometrical imperfections. Section 9 demonstrates axisymmetric collapse and bifurcation buckling of bodies of revolution that consist of combinations of thin shell segments and solid segments to which shell theory cannot be applied with sufficient accuracy.