Stability of Orthotropic Corrugated Cylindrical Shells under Axial Compression

The problem of stability of orthotropic noncircular cylindrical shells whose cross section can be described by a function in the form of superposition of a constant and a multiperiodic cosinusoid is considered. The solution of this problem is based on a rigorous consideration of the shell geometry and on the representation of the resolving functions in terms of trigonometric series in the circumferential coordinate. The determination of the bifurcation load is reduced to finding the minimum eigenvalue of a sequence of infinite systems of homogeneous algebraic equations. The effect of corrugation on the critical load of thin glass- and boron-reinforced shells of arbitrary length is analyzed. The data on the efficiency of corrugated shells, in comparison with circular ones, in relation to the mechanical properties of materials are obtained. The accuracy of the calculation procedure is estimated in the case where the corrugated shell is simulated by an equivalent circular one.