Studies of nonlinear deformation and stability of noncircular cylindrical shells in transverse bending

The variational finite element method in displacements is used to solve the problem of geometrically nonlinear deformation and stability of cylindrical shells with a noncircular contour of the cross-section. Quadrangle finite elements of shells of natural curvature are used. In the approximations of element displacements, the displacements of elements as solids are explicitly separated. The variational Lagrange principle is used to obtain a nonlinear system of algebraic equations for the unknown nodal finite elements. The system is solved by the method of successive loadings and by the Newton-Kantorovich linearization method. The linear system is solved by the Crout method. The critical loads are determined in the process of solving the nonlinear problem by using the Sylvester stability criterion. An algorithm and a computer program are developed to study the problem numerically. The nonlinear deformation and stability of shells with oval and elliptic cross-sections are investigated in a broad range of variation of the elongation and ellipticity parameters. The shell critical loads and buckling modes are determined. The influence of the deformation nonlinearity, elongation, and ellipticity of the shell on the critical loads is examined.