Review of Imperfection Sensitivity of Stiffened Shells.

摘要

A short history is related about how imperfections (i.e., deviations from the assumed theoretical form of a shell structure) came to be regarded as the major contributor to the experimental scatter observed in shell buckling tests, and the discrepancy between experimentally determined buckling loads and those determined by classical linear theory. J.M.T. Thompson's insight into the relationship between imperfection sensitivity and optimality of shell structures with respect to load configurations is brought out. The significant contributions to understanding elastic postbuckling behavior of thin stiffened shells and how this work relates to imperfection sensitivity are reviewed. The implications of this work and its applicability to current engineering design and analysis are assessed. The effects of geometric imperfections as well as those induced by boundary conditions or multiple load cases on the postbuckling behavior of shells are discussed. Added discussions by Profs. Singer and van Neut are also presented. (Author)