Shear buckling modes of cylindrical sandwich shells under external pressure, tension-compression of bearing layers with unequal forces, and inhomogeneous across-the-thickness temperature

Equations are set up for describing, in a correct statement and with an accuracy sufficient in actual practice, the shear buckling modes (BMs) of cylindrical sandwich shells with a transversely soft core of arbitrary thickness. Based on them, solutions are obtained to a number of problems on the buckling instability according to shear modes under some force and thermal loadings. It is found that the BMs occur in the shell along the circumferential and axial directions if, in the precritical state, a normal compressive stress arises in the transverse direction. It is shown that this condition is fulfilled in the following cases: in axial tension of the shell with unequal forces applied to the end faces of bearing layers (the parameter of critical load is maximum if the tensile forces are equal); under external (internal) pressure; on cooling the outer and heating the inner layers. The results obtained are presented in the form of simple analytical formulas for determining the corresponding critical parameters of the force and thermal actions.Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 37–48, January–February, 2005.