Cylindrical shells subjected to lateral loads buckle in shear or bending buckling modes. The effects of combined loadings are investigated by developing a special-purpose FEM program using the 8-node isoparametric shell element. Three types of loading, lateral and axial loads, and pure bending moments are considered. For short cylindrical shells, shear buckling modes are dominant, but elephant-foot bulges take place with an increase in bending moments. Effects of axial loads on shear buckling and the elephant-foot bulge are investigated. In the case of shear buckling the axial load affects the buckling mode as well as the buckling load. For bending bucklings, the axial loads have great effect on the buckling load.
