Experimental studies on dynamic plastic buckling of circular cylindrical shells under axial impact

In the present paper, experimental studies on dynamic plasticbuckling of circular cylindrical shells under axial impact are carried out. Hopkinson bar and drop hammer apparatus are used for dynamic loading. Three groups of circular cylindrical shells made of copper are tested under axial impact. From the experiments, the first critical velocity corresponding to the axi-symmetric buckling mode and the second critical velocity corresponding to the non-axisymmetric buckling mode are determined. The present results come close to those of second critical velocity given by Wang Ren[4–6]. Two different kinds of non-axisymmetric buckling modes oval-shaped and triangle shaped are founded. The buckling modes under two loading cases, viz. with small mass but high velocity and with large mass and low velocity using Hopkinson bar and drop hammer, are different. Their critical energies are also discussed.