Buckling Behavior of Pressure Loaded Cylindrical Panels

Abstract

Buckling of pressure loaded cylindrical panels is investigated using a fully nonlinear Ritz solution procedure and a classical bifurcation analysis of an idealized model. The dialectic between these two contrasting approaches is shown to produce greater understanding than if either one of them were to be used alone. Apart from illuminating the specific buckling behavior of the pressure loaded panel and demonstrating the lower boundedness of the reduced stiffness analytical procedure, the paper suggests that a similar interplay between classical and numerical analysis could be useful in elucidating behavior and providing design analysis procedures for many other shell buckling problems.