A semi-analytical buckling analysis of imperfect cylindrical shells under axial compression

In the framework of the cellular bifurcation theory, we investigate the effect of distributed and/or localized imperfections on the buckling of long cylindrical shells under axial compression. Using a double scale perturbative approach including modes interaction, we establish that the evolution of amplitudes of instability patterns is governed by a nonhomogeneous second order system of three non-linear complex equations. The localized imperfections are included by employing jump conditions for their amplitude and permitting discontinuous derivatives. By solving these amplitude equations, we show the influence of distributed and/or localized imperfections on the reduction of the critical load. To assess the validity of the present method, our results are compared to those given by two finite element codes. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.