Analytical research on dynamic buckling of thin cylindrical shells with thickness variation under axial pressure

This paper focuses on the dynamic buckling of thin cylindrical shells with arbitrary axisymmetric thickness variation under time dependent axial pressure. Based on the derivation of stability and compatibility equations of variable thickness cylindrical shells under dynamic external pressure by Aksogan and Sofiyev, the corresponding stability and compatibility equations of thin cylindrical shells with arbitrary axisymmetric thickness variation under dynamic axial pressure are obtained and expressed in nondimensional form. Combining the small parameter perturbation method, Fourier series expansion and the Sachenkov-Baktieva method, analytical formulas of the critical buckling load of thin cylindrical shells with arbitrary axisymmetric thickness variation under axial pressure that varies as a power function of time are obtained. Two cases of thickness variation are introduced to research the critical dynamic buckling load with the present formulas. Effects of thickness variation parameters and loading speed of dynamic axial pressure on the critical buckling load are discussed. The method is also applied to determine the critical dynamic buckling load of thin cylindrical shells with a classical cosine form thickness variation. Results revel that the thickness variation and pressure parameters play a major role in dictating the buckling capacity of thin cylindrical shells under dynamic axial pressure. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.