NONLINEAR-ANALYSIS OF IMPERFECT METALLIC AND LAMINATED CYLINDERS UNDER BENDING LOADS

The nonlinear buckling of imperfect metallic and laminated cylindrical shells under a?tial compression, bending, and a combination of compre ssion and bending is investigated. The effects of length-to-radius rat io, radius-to-thickness ratio, imperfection shape and amplitude, and b oundary conditions on critical loads are considered, The finite elemen t method is employed and the ANSYS computer code is selected to genera te results, The effect of transverse shear deformation is included in the analysis, To acquire confidence in the solution methodology, resul ts are produced and compared with those available by other solution te chniques (analytical verification). Then, numerical results reflecting a wide range of length-to-radius ratios, radius-to-thickness ratios, and various imperfection shapes and amplitudes are presented and discu ssed, Among all conclusions, the most important one is that imperfecti on shapes substantially affect the critical loads, For each cylindrica l configuration analyzed, certain imperfection shapes can be found, wh ich make the cylinder extremely imperfection sensitive.