A boundary layer theory for the buckling of thin cylindrical shells under external pressure

Based on the boundary layer theory for the buckling of thin elastic shells suggested in ref. [14]. the buckling and postbuckling behavior of clamped circular cylindrical shells under lateral or hydrostatic pressure is studied applying singular perturbation method by taking deflection as perturbation parameter. The effects of initial geometric imperfection are also considered. Some numerical results for perfect and imperfect cylindrical shells are given. The analytical results obtained are compared with some experimental data in detail, which shows that both are rather coincident.