Abstract
Experimental and analytical investigation on the shell buckling of cylindrical shells under hydrostatic pressure was carried out in order to clarify the effects of the initial deflection and the size of stiffening ring to the buckling pressure.
Fifty-three steel cylinders with five bays, which are consist of twenty-four without the initial deflection and twenty-nine with one or three dents in their mid-bay, were fabricated with NC-machine tools and were tested. The analyses on the shell buckling of those cylinders were carried out by finite element method.
The following results were obtained from the experiments and the analyses :
(1) The pressure factor caused the shell buckling can be expressed as a function of thinness factor without introducing significant error.
(2) The effect of the ring size to the shell buckling pressure is insignificant provided the shells are designed so that the general instability dose not occur.
(3) The local distribution of the initial deflection has the direct effects upon the shell buckling pressure.
