Nonlinear dynamic buckling of orthotropic cylindrical shells subjected to rapidly applied loads

Dynamic buckling of an orthotropic cylindrical shell which is subjected to rapidly applied compression is considered. A nonlinear differential equation of Donnell-Karman type is derived with the initial imperfection taken into account. An energy method is used to obtain the equation of motion which is then solved numerically by means of a Runge-Kutta method. These numerical results show that the critical load is increased over the corresponding static case. An analytical solution is also obtained for the problem of hydrostatic pressure.