Defence Research & Development Canada (DRDC) and the Netherlands Ministry of Defence (MoD) are conducting collapse tests on externally pressurized aluminium ring-stiffened cylinders to validate numerical modelling methods, and to better understand the effects of corrosion on pressure hull strength and serviceability. A variety of short and long cylinder specimens exhibiting interframe and overall collapse modes are being fabricated and tested. Corrosion effects are introduced artificially in the specimens by machining away material according to pre-defined patterns. Nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) is being used to simulate elasto-plastic collapse of the cylinder specimens, and the present paper gives results for thirteen specimens that have already been tested and analyzed. Good qualitative agreement between experimental and predicted collapse shapes was obtained for all cylinders. Comparison of experimental strain measurements with FE model predictions are given for several specimens and show good agreement in elastic and inelastic response regimes, for intact and corroded specimens. Overall, FEA collapse pressure predictions for the thirteen specimens are within ±7% of measured values. This represents a significant improvement over traditional empirical design methods, which underestimate the experimental collapse pressures in this study by, on average, 23%.
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