scholarly journals Nonlinear buckling behaviour of spherical shells: barriers and symmetry-breaking dimples

Author(s):  
John W. Hutchinson ◽  
J. Michael T. Thompson

The nonlinear axisymmetric post-buckling behaviour of perfect, thin, elastic spherical shells subject to external pressure and their asymmetric bifurcations are characterized, providing results for a structure/loading combination with an exceptionally nonlinear buckling response. Immediately after the onset of buckling, the buckling mode localizes into a dimple at the poles. The relations among the pressure, the dimple amplitude and the change in volume of the shell are determined over a large range of pole deflections. These results allow accurate evaluation of criteria such as the Maxwell condition for which the energies in the unbuckled and buckled states are the same and evaluation of the influences of pressure versus volume-controlled loadings. Non-axisymmetric bifurcation from the axisymmetric state, which occurs deep into the post-buckling regime in the form of multi-lobed dimples, is also established and discussed. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Patterning through instabilities in complex media: theory and applications.’

2019 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Sieber ◽  
John W. Hutchinson ◽  
J. Michael T. Thompson

Abstract This paper investigates the robustness against localized impacts of elastic spherical shells pre-loaded under uniform external pressure. We subjected a pre-loaded spherical shell that is clamped at its equator to axisymmetric blast-like impacts applied to its polar region. The resulting axisymmetric dynamic response is computed for increasing amplitudes of the blast. Both perfect shells and shells with axisymmetric geometric imperfections are analyzed. The impact energy threshold causing buckling is identified and compared with the energy barrier that exists between the buckled and unbuckled static equilibrium states of the energy landscape associated with the pre-loaded pressure. The extent to which the impact energy of the threshold blast exceeds the energy barrier depends on the details of its shape and width. Targeted blasts that approximately replicate the size and shape of the energy barrier buckling mode defined in the paper have an energy threshold that is only modestly larger than the energy barrier. An extensive study is carried out for more realistic Gaussian-shaped blasts revealing that the buckling threshold energy for these blasts is typically in the range of at least 10–40% above the energy barrier, depending on the pressure pre-load and the blast width. The energy discrepancy between the buckling threshold and energy barrier is due to elastic waves spreading outward from the impact and dissipation associated with the numerical integration scheme. Buckling is confined to the vicinity of the pole such that, if the shell is not shallow, the buckling thresholds are not strongly dependent on the location of the clamping boundary, as illustrated for a shell clamped halfway between the pole and the equator.


Author(s):  
Krzysztof Magnucki ◽  
Leszek Wittenbeck

This paper is devoted to stability investigation of orthotropic circular cylindrical vessels subjected to external pressure. An untypical orthotropic structure that consist of two layers: smooth-external and corrugated-internal is proposed. The investigation is divided into two steps. In first one analytical formulas describing buckling behaviour are derived. In second step numerical analysis is performed by using FEM to obtain the correlation between analytical and numerical results. Authors also considered linear and nonlinear buckling analysis. During the linear analysis the influence of vessel geometry on critical pressure is determined. Nonlinear analysis is carried out to create equilibrium paths which show the behaviour of vessels in post-buckling state. The results of the analysis are presented in figures.


2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 291-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Dinh Duc ◽  
Vu Thi Thuy Anh ◽  
Dao Huy Bich

This paper presents an analytical approach to investigate the nonlinear buckling and post-buckling of thin annular spherical shells made of functionally graded materials (FGM) and subjected to mechanical load and resting on Winkler-Pasternak type elastic foundations. Material properties are graded in the thickness direction according to a simple power law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of constituents. Equilibrium and compatibility equations for annular spherical shells are derived by using the classical thin shell theory in terms of the shell deflection and the stress function. Approximate analytical solutions are assumed to satisfy simply supported boundary conditions and Galerkin method is applied to obtain closed-form of load-deflection paths. An analysis is carried out to show the effects of material and geometrical properties and combination of loads on the stability of the annular spherical shells.


Author(s):  
Jan Sieber ◽  
John W. Hutchinson ◽  
J. Michael T. Thompson

Dynamic buckling is addressed for complete elastic spherical shells subject to a rapidly applied step in external pressure. Insights from the perspective of nonlinear dynamics reveal essential mathematical features of the buckling phenomena. To capture the strong buckling imperfection-sensitivity, initial geometric imperfections in the form of an axisymmetric dimple at each pole are introduced. Dynamic buckling under the step pressure is related to the quasi-static buckling pressure. Both loadings produce catastrophic collapse of the shell for conditions in which the pressure is prescribed. Damping plays an important role in dynamic buckling because of the time-dependent nonlinear interaction among modes, particularly the interaction between the spherically symmetric ‘breathing’ mode and the buckling mode. In general, there is not a unique step pressure threshold separating responses associated with buckling from those that do not buckle. Instead, there exists a cascade of buckling thresholds, dependent on the damping and level of imperfection, separating pressures for which buckling occurs from those for which it does not occur. For shells with small and moderately small imperfections, the dynamic step buckling pressure can be substantially below the quasi-static buckling pressure.


Author(s):  
John W. Hutchinson

A study is presented of the post-buckling behaviour and imperfection sensitivity of complete spherical shells subject to uniform external pressure. The study builds on and extends the major contribution to spherical shell buckling by Koiter in the 1960s. Numerical results are presented for the axisymmetric large deflection behaviour of perfect spheres followed by an extensive analysis of the role axisymmetric imperfections play in reducing the buckling pressure. Several types of middle surface imperfections are considered including dimple-shaped undulations and sinusoidal-shaped equatorial undulations. Buckling occurs either as the attainment of a maximum pressure in the axisymmetric state or as a non-axisymmetric bifurcation from the axisymmetric state. Several new findings emerge: the abrupt mode localization that occurs immediately after the onset of buckling, the existence of an apparent lower limit to the buckling pressure for realistically large imperfections, and comparable reductions of the buckling pressure for dimple and sinusoidal equatorial imperfections.


2017 ◽  
Vol 84 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Hutchinson ◽  
J. Michael T. Thompson

Elastic spherical shells loaded under uniform pressure are subject to equal and opposite compressive probing forces at their poles to trigger and explore buckling. When the shells support external pressure, buckling is usually axisymmetric; the maximum probing force and the energy barrier the probe must overcome are determined. Applications of the probing forces under two different loading conditions, constant pressure or constant volume, are qualitatively different from one another and fully characterized. The effects of probe forces on both perfect shells and shells with axisymmetric dimple imperfections are studied. When the shells are subject to internal pressure, buckling occurs as a nonaxisymmetric bifurcation from the axisymmetric state in the shape of a mode with multiple circumferential waves concentrated in the vicinity of the probe. Exciting new experiments by others are briefly described.


2018 ◽  
Vol 85 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Gerasimidis ◽  
E. Virot ◽  
J. W. Hutchinson ◽  
S. M. Rubinstein

This paper investigates issues that have arisen in recent efforts to revise long-standing knockdown factors for elastic shell buckling, which are widely regarded as being overly conservative for well-constructed shells. In particular, this paper focuses on cylindrical shells under axial compression with emphasis on the role of local geometric dimple imperfections and the use of lateral force probes as surrogate imperfections. Local and global buckling loads are identified and related for the two kinds of imperfections. Buckling loads are computed for four sets of relevant boundary conditions revealing a strong dependence of the global buckling load on overall end-rotation constraint when local buckling precedes global buckling. A reasonably complete picture emerges, which should be useful for informing decisions on establishing knockdown factors. Experiments are performed using a lateral probe to study the stability landscape for a cylindrical shell with overall end rotation constrained in the first set of tests and then unconstrained in the second set of tests. The nonlinear buckling behavior of spherical shells under external pressure is also examined for both types of imperfections. The buckling behavior of spherical shells is different in a number of important respects from that of the cylindrical shells, particularly regarding the interplay between local and global buckling and the post-buckling load-carrying capacity. These behavioral differences have bearing on efforts to revise buckling design rules. The present study raises questions about the perspicacity of using probe force imperfections as surrogates for geometric dimple imperfections.


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