Bifurcation mode of creep buckling of a circular cylindrical shell under axial compression

In some experiments conducted by other authors, axially compressive cylindrical shells with a large ratio of radius to thickness were observed to buckle with circumferential waves. The finite element method is utilized to study this buckling phenomenon. The bifurcation mode, as well as the axisymmetric one, is considered in the analysis as the mode of creep buckling. The number of circumferential waves obtained from the present analysis agrees well with that of other experiments. This implies that the circumferential waves observed in the creep buckling experiments are due to bifurcation.