On the buckling of cylindrical shells with through cracks under axial load

Presence of cracks or similar imperfections can considerably reduce the buc kling load of a shell structure. In this paper, the buckling of cylindrical shells with through cracks has been studied. A general finite element mode l has been proposed, verified and applied to some novel cracked shell buckl ing problems for which documented results are not available. A special purp ose program has been developed for generating finite elements models of cyl indrical shells with cracks of varying length and orientation. The buckling behavior of cracked cylinders in tension and compression has been studied. The results of the analysis are presented in para metric form when it seem s to be appropriate. Sensitivity of the buckling load to the crack length a nd orientation has also been investigated. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.