Creep buckling of axially compressed circular cylindrical shells of a zirconium alloy: Experiment and computer simulation

Experiments were performed to study the deformation and buckling of axially compressed circular cylindrical shells of Zr2.5Nb zirconium alloy under creep conditions. Computer simulation using the MSC.Marc 2012 software was conducted by step-by-step integration of the equations of quasistatic deformation of thin shells using Norton’s law of steady creep. The results of the experiment and computer simulation show that the buckling modes are a combination of axisymmetric bulges located near one end or both ends of the shell and axisymmetric buckling modes with the formation of three or four waves in the circumferential direction. A comparison is made of the time dependences of the axial strain of the shells obtained in the experiment and by computer simulation. It is shown that for large axial compressive stresses, these dependences are in satisfactory agreement. For lower values of these stresses, the difference between the theoretical and experimental dependences is greater.