Experimental Buckling Analyses on Orthotropic Cylindrical Shells

摘要

In aerospace and civil engineering, cylindrical shells are widely used structural211u001eelements due to their high weight over stiffness ratio. When dealing with thin 211u001ewalled shells, the problem of stability will be addressed. To investigate the 211u001estability of thin-walled cylindrical shells, some analytical tools have been 211u001edeveloped and experimental tests have been performed. The experimental tests 211u001eshowed a large scatter in the buckling loads and great differences with the 211u001eanalytical predictions. It has been shown that stability of cylindrical shells is 211u001estrongly influenced by shape imperfections, wall thickness imperfections, 211u001eboundary condition and material uncertainties. In this work, some experimental 211u001ebuckling results for orthotropic shells are presented. Also measurements of the 211u001emain cause of the large scatter, the initial shape imperfection, are included in 211u001ethis report.