Cylindrical shells under axial compression

75

Weingarten et al. (1965b) and Saal et al. (1979). In Fig. 2.19(a), the unpressurised buckling strength is affected by the imperfection amplitude, so each of the curves shown begins at a different initial stress. The increases in strength with internal pressure are similar in form for different amplitudes of imperfection, though larger imperfections display faster strength gains. The corresponding circumferential modes are shown in Fig. 2.19(b), where the attainment of axisymmetric buckling for w0 /t = 0.2 is seen to be sudden. For very small imperfections, the mode falls as the pressure rises, but for practical imperfection amplitudes, the behaviour is more complicated. Symmetric and asymmetric imperfections Hutchinson (1965) made a most useful study of the imperfection-sensitivity of internally pressurised cylinders under axial compression, considering axisymmetric, circumferentially asymmetric and mixed modes of imperfection. The asymptotic analysis was only valid for small imperfections, but it indicated clearly that asymmetric and axisymmetric imperfections are quite differently affected by internal pressure. A sample set of calculations from his study is shown in Fig. 2.20, where several shells with different imperfection forms that all cause the same loss of strength in an unpressurised shell are compared. It is very evident that the asymmetric imperfection gains strength very rapidly when the internal pressure rises, but the axisymmetric imperfection is much less inuenced. Moreover, when the two imperfection forms have equal amplitudes (as might occur in practice), the strengths are relatively close to those with axisymmetric imperfections. This

1.0 0.9 Dimensionless axial critical stress 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 Symmetric w0 /t = 0.4 Unpressurised strength
cr / cl = 0.303

Axisymmetric only Equal components axisym and asym Asymmetric = 10 * Axisymmetric Asymmetric only 2.0 2.5
cl

3.0

3.5

Dimensionless internal pressure p = pr/t

Figure 2.20 Effect of symmetric and asymmetric imperfections on internal pressure elastic buckling strength gain (after Hutchinson 1965).