Buckling of cantilever cones under external pressure

An experimental and numerical study was performed on the buckling behavior of clamped-free truncated cones under external pressure. A lap-jointed polyester cone was vertically settled in a water vessel and was clamped at the small radius end. Raising water level, the relation of normal displacement with water level was recorded and the buckling water level was determined. The experimental results were in good agreement with the finite-element solutions. The same finite-element program was then used for a parametric study on the buckling of clamped-free cones subjected to uniform external pressure. The results show that the ratio of the critical external pressure of a clamped-free cone with that of a simply supported equivalent cylinder is a function of only the taper ratio ψ of the cone.