Nonlinear analysis of imperfect metallic and laminated cylinders under bending loads

The nonlinear buckling of imperfect metallic and laminated cylindrical shells under a?tial compression, bending, and a combination of compression and bending is investigated. The effects of length-to-radius ratio, radius-to-thickness ratio, imperfection shape and amplitude, and boundary conditions on critical loads are considered, The finite element method is employed and the ANSYS computer code is selected to generate results, The effect of transverse shear deformation is included in the analysis, To acquire confidence in the solution methodology, results are produced and compared with those available by other solution techniques (analytical verification). Then, numerical results reflecting a wide range of length-to-radius ratios, radius-to-thickness ratios, and various imperfection shapes and amplitudes are presented and discussed, Among all conclusions, the most important one is that imperfection shapes substantially affect the critical loads, For each cylindrical configuration analyzed, certain imperfection shapes can be found, which make the cylinder extremely imperfection sensitive.