Buckling behaviour of elliptical cylindrical shells and tubes under compression

This paper presents several issues that characterize the buckling behaviour of elliptical cylindrical shells and tubes under compression. First, a formulation of Generalised Beam Theory (GBT) developed to analyse the elastic buckling behaviour of non-circular hollow section (NCHS) members is presented. Since the radius varies along the cross-section mid-line, the main concepts involved in the determination of the deformation modes are adapted to account for the specific aspects related to elliptical cross-section geometry. After that, two independent sets of fully orthogonal deformation modes are determined: (i) local-shell modes satisfying the null membrane shear strain but exhibiting transverse extension and (ii) shell-type modes satisfying both assumptions of null membrane shear strain and null transverse extension. In order to illustrate the application, capabilities and versatility of the formulation, the local and global buckling behaviour of elliptical hollow section (EHS) members subjected to compression is analysed. In particular, in-depth studies concerning the influence of member length on the variation of the critical load and corresponding buckling mode shape are presented. Moreover, the GBT results are compared with estimates obtained by means of shell finite element analyses and are thoroughly discussed. The results show that short to intermediate length cylinders buckle mostly in local-shell modes, exhibiting only transverse extension, while intermediate length to long cylinders buckle mostly in shell-type modes (distortional and global modes), which are characterized by transverse bending and primary warping displacements. It is also shown that the present formulation is very efficient from the computational point of view since only three deformation modes (one local-shell, one distortional and one global) are required to evaluate the buckling behaviour of EHS cylinders for a wide range of lengths.     

Nonlinear stability of thin elastic cylinders of different length under global bending

Many thin-walled cylindrical shells are used in structural applications in which the dominant loading condition is global bending. Key examples include chimneys, wind turbine support towers, pipelines, horizontal tanks, tubular piles and silos. The buckling behaviour of these structures in bending is complex due to the coupling between cross-section ovalisation and local bifurcation buckling. Analytical treatments of this problem have a history going back almost a century and still constitute an active and challenging research area.This paper investigates in detail the effect of cylinder length on the nonlinear elastic buckling behaviour of clamped cylindrical tubes under global bending, covering a very wide range of lengths. It is found that the behaviour may be classified into four distinct length-dependent domains with clearly-defined boundaries which have here been assigned the names ‘short’, ‘medium’, ‘transitional’ and ‘long’. Algebraic characterisations of the computed nonlinear moment–length relationships are proposed for design purposes.     

Torsional,flexural, and torsional-flexural buckling modes of a cylindrical shell under combined loading

Stability problems for cylindrical shells under various loading modes were considered in numerous papers. A detailed analysis of such problems can be found, e.g., in the monograph [1]. We refer to the solutions presented in this monograph as classical.For long cylindrical shells in axial compression, one of the buckling modes is the purely beam flexural mode similar to the classical buckling mode of a straight rod. It is well known that it can be studied by using the nonlinear or linearized equations of the membrane theory of shells. In [2], it was shown that, on the basis of such equations constructed starting from the noncontradictory version of geometrically nonlinear elasticity relations in the quadratic approximation [3], under the separate action of the axial compression, external pressure, and torsion, there are also previously unknown nonclassical buckling modes, most of which are shear ones.In the present paper, we show that the use of the above equations for cylindrical shells under compression and external pressure with simultaneous pure torsion or bending permits revealing the earlier unknown torsional, beam flexural, and beam torsional-flexural buckling modes, which are nonclassical, just as those found in [2]. The second of these buckling modes is realized when axially compressing forces are formed in the shell with simultaneous torsion, and the third of them is realized under compression combined with pure bending.It was found that, earlier than the classical buckling modes, the torsional buckling modes can be realized for relatively short shells with small shear rigidity in the tangent plane, while the second and third buckling modes can be realized for relatively long shells.     

Interactive buckling in long thin-walled rectangular hollow section struts

An analytical model describing the nonlinear interaction between global and local buckling modes in long thin-walled rectangular hollow section struts under pure compression founded on variational principles is presented. A system of nonlinear differential and integral equations subject to boundary conditions is formulated and solved using numerical continuation techniques. For the first time, the equilibrium behaviour of such struts with different cross-section joint rigidities is highlighted with characteristically unstable interactive buckling paths and a progressive change in the local buckling wavelength. With increasing joint rigidity within the cross-section, the severity of the unstable post-buckling behaviour is shown to be mollified. The results from the analytical model are validated using a nonlinear finite element model developed within the commercial package Abaqus and show excellent comparisons. A simplified method to calculate the local buckling load of the more compressed web undergoing global buckling and the corresponding global mode amplitude at the secondary bifurcation is also developed. Parametric studies on the effect of varying the length and cross-section aspect ratio are also presented that demonstrate the effectiveness of the currently developed models.     

Postbuckling and Imperfection Sensitivity Analysis of Axially Stiffened Cylindrical Shells with Mode Interaction

Abstract

Interaction of nearly simultaneous buckling modes in the presence of imperfections is studied. The investigation is concerned with axially stiffened cylindrical shells under axial compression. In these structures, two modes are of particular interest, namely an overall long-wave and a local shortwave buckling mode. Numerical results show that in some cases bending of the stringers in the local mode postbuckling solution plays an important role. Exclusion of this effect, as was done in a previous study by Byskov and Hutchinson, may lead to an overestimation of the carrying capacity of the shell. Furthermore, it is found that apparently reasonable approximations to the postbuckling fields associated with both the local and the overall mode, as well as with the overall mode alone, may lead to inexact values of the buckling load.     

有限长圆柱壳受径向冲击的塑性动力屈曲分析

讨论两端固定的圆柱薄壳在均布外部冲击下的塑性动力屈曲。依据实验现象对位移场作出假设，用扰动法求得屈曲的扰动控制方程组，降阶后用标准的龙格库塔法进行数值求解。其中物理关系采用Ｌｅｖｙ－Ｍｉｓｅｓ流动理论，材料为刚线性强化模型。计算结果同Ｆｌｏｒｅｎｃｅ等的Ｂｅｓｓｅｌ函数解作了比较，对边界对屈曲的影响作了讨论。本文的结果对潜艇抗水下爆炸的研究有重要意义。     

Size-dependent axial buckling analysis of functionally graded circular cylindrical microshells based on the modified strain gradient elasticity theory

In this paper, a size-dependent first-order shear deformable shell model is developed based upon the modified strain gradient theory (MSGT) for the axial buckling analysis of functionally graded (FG) circular cylindrical microshells. It is assumed that the material properties of FG materials, which obey a simple power-law distribution, vary through the thickness direction. The principle of virtual work is utilized to formulate the governing equations and corresponding boundary conditions. Numerical results are presented for the axial buckling of FG circular cylindrical microshells subject to simply-supported end conditions and the effects of material length scale parameter, material property gradient index, length-to-radius ratio and circumferential mode number on the size-dependent critical buckling load are extensively studied. For comparison purpose, the critical buckling loads predicted by modified couple stress theory (MCST) and classical theory (CT) are also presented. Results show that the size effect plays an important role for lower values of dimensionless length scale parameter. Moreover, it is observed that the critical buckling loads obtained based on MSGT are greater than those obtained based on MCST and CT.     

轴向冲击载荷作用下弹性圆柱壳横向弯曲动态屈曲

研究在轴向冲击载荷下弹性圆柱壳动态屈曲问题.通过构造哈密顿体系,在辛空间中将临界载荷和动态屈曲模态归结为辛本征值和本征解问题.辛本征解反映了局部的压缩屈曲模态和整体的弯曲屈曲模态,特别是在冲击端为自由支承边界时的特殊屈曲方式.数值结果给出了具体的临界载荷和屈曲模态规律.     

开口复合材料柱壳屈曲与补救有限元分析

用有限元法对含有轴向裂纹的开口加强复合材料柱壳结构进行了补救研究;分析其压缩屈曲强度与模态情况,得到了裂纹长度与屈曲强度的关系,并与无裂纹的结构进行了对比.结果表明:裂纹长度在200mm以下时,对整个结构承载能力影响很小;当裂纹长度继续增大时,屈曲区域从开口上方转移到裂纹附近,屈曲强度开始急剧下降.为了加强裂纹所在区域结构的承剪能力,进行适当的修补后,可使屈曲模态与无裂纹柱壳相同,且屈曲强度稍有增加,从而证明了所提出补救方法的有效性.     

Bifurcation of rotating thick-walled elastic tubes

The deformation of a circular cylindrical elastic tube of finite wall thickness rotating about its axis is examined. A circular cylindrical deformed configuration is considered first, and the angular speed analysed as a function of an azimuthai deformation parameter at fixed axial extension for an arbitrary form of incompressible, isotropic elastic strain-energy function. This extends the analysis given previously (Haughton and Ogden, 1980) for membrane tubes.Bifurcation from a circular cylindrical configuration is then investigated. Prismatic, axisymmetric and asymmetric bifurcation modes are discussed separately. Their relative importance is assessed in relation to the wall thickness and length of the tube, the magnitude of the axial extension, and the angular speed turning-points. Numerical results are given for a specific form of strain-energy function.Amongst other results it is found that (i) for long tubes, asymmetric modes of bifurcation can occur at low values of the angular speed and before any possible axisymmetric or prismatic modes and (ii) for short tubes, there is a range of values of the axial extension (including zero) for which no bifurcation can occur during rotation.     

A micro-mechanical model of knitted fabric and its application to the analysis of buckling under tension in wale direction： buckling analysis

With the aid of the micro-mechanical model of knitted fabric proposed in Part 1 we analyze the buckling of a knitted fabric sheet when it is subjected to a tension along the wale direction. The large deformation of the fabric sheet in the critical configuration is considered and, to avoid possible deviation due to the approximation of the theory of thin plate, the three-dimensional theory of instability is used. The fabric sheet is considered as a three-dimensional body and all boundary conditions are satisfied. It is shown that the buckling of the fabric sheet is possible, two buckling modes and the corresponding buckling conditions are obtained, but only the flexural mode is physically possible as observed in experiments.The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10272079)     

Axisymmetric bifurcation analysis in soils by the tangential-subloading surface model

This article discusses localized bifurcation modes corresponding to shear band formation and diffuse bifurcation modes corresponding to bulge formation for cylindrical soil specimen subjected to an axisymmetric load under undrained conditions. We employ the tangential-subloading surface model, which exhibits the characteristic regimes of the governing equations: elliptic, hyperbolic and parabolic. Also, conditions for shear band formation, shear band inclination, diffuse bulging formation, and the long and short wavelength limits of diffuse bulging modes are discussed in relation to material properties and their state of stress, i.e. the stress ratio and the normal-yield ratio. Tangential-plastic strain rate term is required for the analyses of shear band and diffuse bulging. The shear band and the diffuse bulging are generated in not only normal-yield but also subyield states and they are severely affected by the normal-yield ratio describing the degree of approach to the normal-yield state.     

柱状电极屈曲或裂纹扩展的临界力学参数研究

柱形结构电极是近年来使用最为广泛的锂电池电极结构之一.本文以硅材料细长柱形电极为例,研究了充电电流大小、电极长径比、初始裂纹长度以及断裂韧性对于电极的屈曲现象和裂纹扩展现象发生时间的影响.计算结果表明,屈曲与裂纹扩展现象出现的先后顺序与充电电流大小无关;具有小的长径比,大的初始裂纹长度以及较小断裂韧性的电极,裂纹扩展比屈曲现象更早发生.对于硅材料,不同长径比的电极具有不同临界断裂韧性值,当材料的断裂韧性小于该临界值,在锂化过程中裂纹扩展会先于屈曲现象发生;该临界断裂韧性值随初始裂纹长度的增加而增加.本文的结论对于电极的结构设计以及材料选取具有一定指导意义.     

Experimental studies on dynamic plastic buckling of circular cylindrical shells under axial impact

In the present paper, experimental studies on dynamic plasticbuckling of circular cylindrical shells under axial impact are carried out. Hopkinson bar and drop hammer apparatus are used for dynamic loading. Three groups of circular cylindrical shells made of copper are tested under axial impact. From the experiments, the first critical velocity corresponding to the axi-symmetric buckling mode and the second critical velocity corresponding to the non-axisymmetric buckling mode are determined. The present results come close to those of second critical velocity given by Wang Ren^[4–6]. Two different kinds of non-axisymmetric buckling modes oval-shaped and triangle shaped are founded. The buckling modes under two loading cases, viz. with small mass but high velocity and with large mass and low velocity using Hopkinson bar and drop hammer, are different. Their critical energies are also discussed. The project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (19672039) and the Foundation for Returned Scholar from Abroad of Shanxi Province     

静水压力下环加肋圆柱壳总体与局部失稳分析的复合有限条法

本文提出了一种计算环加肋圆柱壳稳定性的新方法─—复合有限条法。该方法能够在一个复合有限条元中计入若干个横向加肋的影响，井能考虑肋骨的偏心，是一种子结构方法。算例表明，复合有限条法具有很高的求解精度和效率，是一种分析加肋柱壳结构的较理想方法。该方法不仅能够计算环加肋圆柱壳的总体失稳临界载荷，而且可计算其局部失稳临界载荷。     

考虑周长约束的圆柱薄壳初始几何缺陷随机场建模方法

利用随机场对圆柱薄壳结构的初始几何缺陷进行建模,并据此建立了一种用于含初始几何缺陷轴压圆柱薄壳屈曲分析的随机分析方法。首先,指出已有将圆柱薄壳初始几何缺陷表征为二维高斯随机场的方法会导致与实际不相符的初始几何缺陷,如圆柱周长显著增大或缩小的几何缺陷。其次,提出一种考虑周长不变约束的随机场建模方法,以剔除与实际不相符的随机几何缺陷。最后,基于所建立的初始几何缺陷随机场模型,利用非干涉多项式混沌展开法进行圆柱薄壳的随机屈曲分析,给出临界屈曲载荷的概率分布。数值试验结果表明,基于随机场理论的初始几何缺陷建模方法可有效刻画几何缺陷对结构承载能力的影响,而提出的约束随机场建模方法又能有效减小结果的分散性。     

Micro-buckling in the nanocomposite structure of biological materials

Nanocomposite structure, consisting of hard mineral and soft protein, is the elementary building block of biological materials, where the mineral crystals are arranged in a staggered manner in protein matrix. This special alignment of mineral is supposed to be crucial to the structural stability of the biological materials under compressive load, but the underlying mechanism is not yet clear. In this study, we performed analytical analysis on the buckling strength of the nanocomposite structure by explicitly considering the staggered alignment of the mineral crystals, as well as the coordination among the minerals during the buckling deformation. Two local buckling modes of the nanostructure were identified, i.e., the symmetric mode and anti-symmetric mode. We showed that the symmetric mode often happens at large aspect ratio and large volume fraction of mineral, while the anti-symmetric happens at small aspect ratio and small volume fraction. In addition, we showed that because of the coordination of minerals with the help of their staggered alignment, the buckling strength of these two modes approached to that of the ideally continuous fiber reinforced composites at large aspect ratio given by Rosen's model, insensitive to the existing “gap”-like flaws between mineral tips. Furthermore, we identified a mechanism of buckling mode transition from local to global buckling with increase of aspect ratio, which was attributed to the biphasic dependence of the buckling strength on the aspect ratio. That is, for small aspect ratio, the local buckling strength is smaller than that of global buckling so that it dominates the buckling behavior of the nanocomposite; for comparatively larger aspect ratio, the local buckling strength is higher than that of global buckling so that the global buckling dominates the buckling behavior. We also found that the hierarchical structure can effectively enhance the buckling strength, particularly, this structural design enables biological nanocomposites to avoid local buckling so as to achieve global buckling at macroscopic scales through hierarchical design. These features are remarkably important for the mechanical functions of biological materials, such as bone, teeth and nacre, which often sustain large compressive load.     

Postbuckling of FGM cylindrical shells under combined axial and radial mechanical loads in thermal environments

A postbuckling analysis is presented for a shear deformable functionally graded cylindrical shell of finite length subjected to combined axial and radial loads in thermal environments. Heat conduction and temperature-dependent material properties are both taken into account. The temperature field considered is assumed to be a uniform distribution over the shell surface and varied in the thickness direction only. Material properties are assumed to be temperature-dependent, and graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. The formulations are based on a higher order shear deformation shell theory with von Kármán–Donnell-type of kinematic nonlinearity. A boundary layer theory of shell buckling, which includes the effects of nonlinear prebuckling deformations, large deflections in the postbuckling range, and initial geometric imperfections of the shell, is extended to the case of functionally graded cylindrical shells. A singular perturbation technique is employed to determine the interactive buckling loads and postbuckling equilibrium paths. The numerical illustrations concern the postbuckling response of perfect and imperfect cylindrical shells with two constituent materials subjected to combined axial and radial mechanical loads and under different sets of thermal environments. The results reveal that the temperature field and volume fraction distribution have a significant effect on the postbuckling behavior, but they have a small effect on the imperfection sensitivity of the functionally graded shell.     

Buckling driven debonding in sandwich columns

A compression loaded sandwich column that contains a debond is analyzed using a geometrically non-linear finite element model. The model includes a cohesive zone along one face sheet/core interface whereby the debond can extend by interface crack growth. Two geometrical imperfections are introduced; a global imperfection of the sandwich column axis and a local imperfection of the debonded face sheet axis. The model predicts the sandwich column to be very sensitive to the initial debond length and the local face sheet imperfection. The study shows that the sensitivity to the face sheet imperfection results from two mechanisms: (a) interaction of local debond buckling and global buckling and (b) the development of a damaged zone at the debond crack tip. Based on the pronounced imperfection sensitivity, the author predicts that an experimental measurement of the strength of sandwich structures may exhibit a large scatter caused by geometrical variations between test specimens.     

Influence of localized imperfections on the buckling of cylindrical shells under axial compression

The influence of localized imperfections on the buckling of a long cylindrical shell under axial compression is analysed by using a double scale analysis including interaction modes. This leads to a system of coupled complex non-linear differential equations with discontinuous derivatives. We propose analytical formulas to predict the reduction of the critical buckling load.