Cylindrical shells under axial compression

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This sensitivity to geometric imperfections is, however, very dependent on the form of the imperfection, as well as the length of the shell. The peak loads are usually summarised in the form of a strengthimperfection relationship (Figs 2.9 and 2.10(b)), which identies the peak load achieved, whether this peak occurs by bifurcation into a different mode or by reaching a limit load in a mode that is already present in the geometric imperfection. The full nonlinear analyses performed by Yamaki (1984) shown in Fig. 2.10(a) relate to imperfections in asymmetric modes and each maximum load occurs as a snap-through limit load. These limit loads are indicated in Fig. 2.10(b) by symbols, and the full curves correspond to asymptotic approximations to these. The latter are valid only for small amplitude imperfections, and are sensitive to the terms that have been retained in the derivation (K corresponds to Koiters general analysis (Hutchinson and Koiter 1970), C to Cohens (1971) improved version and Y to Yamakis (1984) more precise result). However, it is evident that the asymptotic expressions are accurate for small amplitude imperfections if sufcient terms are included. Careful experiments on cylinders with axisymmetric sinusoidal imperfections (Tennyson and Muggeridge 1969) and others with a single axisymmetric inward imperfection (Hutchinson et al. 1971) also showed that the asymptotic analyses described above can represent the strengths very well if the geometric imperfection forms and amplitudes are known. Once the huge potential fall in the elastic buckling strength due to geometric imperfections had been identied, it was immediately evident that the very low strengths seen in tests (Fig. 2.3) were to be expected when the shell fabrication was not well controlled, and that these test results were also likely to exhibit a high scatter since different specimens might have different amplitudes of imperfections. A very large literature on the effects of geometric imperfections grew up, but few studies have explored the related problems of local irregularities in the boundaries and residual stresses. Imperfections in different forms Koiters seminal work was followed by many extensive studies of the imperfectionsensitivity and postbuckling behaviour of elastic axially compressed shells (e.g. Donnell and Wan 1950; Koiter 1963; Hutchinson and Koiter 1970; Cohen 1971; Arbocz and Sechler 1974; Singer 1982; Yamaki 1984; Rotter and Teng 1989b; Rotter 1997). These studies have all shown that the strengths of elastic shells can be acutely sensitive to the magnitude of initial imperfections in the shell surface (Fig. 2.4), especially in thinner and medium length shells. However, the buckling strength depends very much on the shape and amplitude of the imperfection, the shell geometry and boundary conditions. Many imperfection forms do not have a very deleterious effect, and the strength reduction caused by an imperfection cannot be easily deduced from the depth of dents in the shell surface. In addition, imperfections of the loading (loss of concentricity,