Dynamic elastic-plastic buckling of circular cylindrical shells under axial impact

Dynamic axisymmetric buckling of circular cylindrical shells struck axially by a mass is studied in order to clarify the initiation of buckling and to provide some insight into the buckling mechanism as a transient process. I t is assumed that the material is elastic-plastic with linear strain harden ing and displaying the Bauschinger effect. The deformation process is analy sed by a numerical simulation using a discrete model. Particular attention is paid to the influence of stress wave propagation on the initiation of bu ckling. It is found that the development of the buckling shape depends stro ngly on the inertia properties of the striker and on the geometry of the sh ell. The theoretical method is used to clarify some experimental data and g ood agreement is obtained with results on aluminium alloy tubes. (C ) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.