Inelastic buckling of thick-walled circular conical shells under external hydrostatic pressure

The paper reports on a theoretical and an experimental study into the collapse of three thick-walled circular conical shells, which were tested to failure under external hydrostatic pressure. All three vessels failed by plastic non-symmetric bifurcation buckling. Two theoretical analyses were carried out, both based on the finite element method. One of the theoretical analyses was based on inelastic non-symmetric bifurcation buckling and the other analysis was based on plastic axisymmetric buckling. Both of these theoretical analysis and the experimental observations appeased to indicate that there is a link between plastic non-symmetric bifurcation buckling and plastic axisymmelric buckling. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.