Effect of a Dent of Different Sizes and Angles of Inclination on Buckling Strength of a Short Stainless Steel Cylindrical Shell Subjected to Uniform Axial Compression

Abstract

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 (L / D ∼1 and R/t = 280) stainless steel 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 dents do not have much effect on static buckling strength of thin cylindrical shells, where as 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.