Buckling under the external pressure of cylindrical shells with variable thickness

Abstract

This study focuses on the buckling of cylindrical shells with small thickness variations under external pressure. Asymptotic formulas in terms of the thickness non-uniformity parameter are derived by the combined perturbation and Bubnov-Galerkin methods. In addition to the analytic investigation based on the thin shell theory, a numerical analysis is also performed. Results from these formulas are discussed and compared with those obtained by other authors. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd.