On local buckling of thin shells

A class of problems is considered where the buckling initially starts only in a part of the shell—locally. The stability analysis is focused on the zone of initial buckling. This leads to radical simplification. First the basic hypothesis and stability equations are formulated. Closed-form stability criteria asymptotically exact for very thin shells are discussed. This gives sufficient conditions for the local character of buckling and for the adequacy of the asymptotic approximation. The analysis taking into account the variation of stresses and shape inside the buckling zone results in a check of stability by hand calculations or by simple coding of a desk-top computer. The adequacy of the simplest representation of the stress and strain variation in the buckling zone is tested.