Parametric study on buckling behaviour of dented short carbon steel cylindrical shell subjected to uniform axial compression

Generally, thin cylindrical shells are susceptible for geometrical imperfections like non-circularity, non-cylindricity, dents, swellings, etc. All these geometrical imperfections decrease the static buckling strength of thin cylindrical shells, but in this paper only effect of a dent on strength of a short (Lc/Rc similar to 1, Rc/t=117, 175, 280) cylindrical shell is considered for analysis. The dent is modeled on the FE surface of perfect cylindrical shell for different angles of inclination and sizes at half the height of cylindrical shell. The cylindrical shells with a dent are analyzed using non-linear static buckling analysis. From the results it is found that in case of shorter dents, size and angle of inclination of dents do not have much effect on static buckling strength of thin cylindrical shells, whereas in the case of long dents, size and angle of inclination of dents have significant effect. But both short and long dents reduce the static buckling strength drastically. It is also found that the reduction in buckling strength of thin cylindrical shell with a dent of same size and orientation increases with increase in shell thickness. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.