Limiting state of a multilayered nonlinearly elastic long cylindrical shell under the action of nonuniform external pressure

Abstract

The buckling of a long multilayered nonlinearly elastic shell made of different materials and subject to the action of external pressure is investigated. The load is not hydrostatic and greatly varies in value and direction. Neglecting the effect of end fastening of the shell, the problem is reduced to an analysis of the loss of load-carrying ability of a ring of unit width separated from the shell. The solution is based on a variational method of mixed type formulated for heterogeneous nonlinearly elastic bodies, taking into account the geometrical nonlinearity, in a combination with the Rayleigh–Ritz method. The initial analysis is reduced to solving the Cauchy problem for a nonlinear ordinary differential equation resolved for the derivative. Numerically, using the Runge–Kutta method, the effect of the number of layers and of the parameter of nonuniformity of the external pressure on the critical buckling force is revealed. The urgency and importance of the problem are connected with the research of reserves in the saving of materials with a simultaneous possibility of increasing the load-carrying ability of a structure.