Civil Engineering Association

Buckling of an axially compressed cylindrical shell of variable thickness

This paper focuses on the buckling of cylindrical shells with small thickness variations. Two important cases of thickness variation pattern are considered. Asymptotic formulas up to the second order of the thickness variation parameter ε are derived by the combination of the perturbation and weighted residual methods. The expressions obtained in this study reduce to Koiter's formulas, when only the first-order term of the thickness variation parameter is retained in the analysis. Results from the asymptotic formulas are compared with those obtained through the purely numerical techniques of the finite difference method and the shooting method.