Experimental buckling of GRP cylindrical shells

During the setup of an experiment, errors may occur. Sources of such errors may be due to several factors which sometimes accumulate and then cause erroneous results. An experimental investigation on buckling of GRP (glass-reinforced-plastic) cylindrical shells, subject to axial compression and/or external pressure loading, has been carried out. At the beginning of the experiment, the initial geometrical imperfections were measured. Because of the small size of these quantities and the great effect these imperfections had on buckling loads, any small errors in the measurement procedure may lead to unreasonable results. Attempts have been made to detect these errors, and to identify and minimize their effect on experimental results. Tables are provided to show a comparison between the final experimental results and the corresponding theoretical ones.