Dynamic buckling analysis of composite cylindrical shells using a finite element based perturbation method

In this paper a finite element formulation of a reduction method for dynamic buckling analysis of imperfection-sensitive shell structures is presented. The reduction method makes use of a perturbation approach, initially developed for static buckling and later extended to dynamic buckling analysis. The implementation of a single-mode dynamic buckling analysis in a general purpose finite element code is described. The effectiveness of the approach is illustrated by application to the dynamic buckling of composite cylindrical shells under axial and radial step loads. Results of the reduction method are compared with results available in the literature. The results are also compared with full model finite element explicit dynamic analysis, and a reasonable agreement is obtained.