Reliability Assessment of Buckling Strength for Compressed Cylindrical Shells with Interacting Localized Geometric Imperfections

Problem statement: Elastic cylindrical shells are common structures in the fields of civil engineering and engineering mechanics. These thin-walled constructions may undergo buckling when subjected to axial compression. Buckling limits to large extent their strength performance. This phenomenon depends hugely on the initial distributed or localized geometric imperfections that are present on the shell structure. Localized geometric imperfections result in general from the operation of welding strakes to assemble the shell structure. In this study, reliability of buckling strength as it could be affected by shell material and geometry parameters was investigated. The localized geometric imperfections were chosen to be entering and having either a triangular or a wavelet form. Interaction between three localized imperfections had also been considered. Approach: A special software package which was dedicated to buckling analysis of quasi axisymmetric shells was used in order to compute the buckling load via the linear Euler buckling procedure. A set of five factors including shell aspect ratios, defect characteristics and the distance separating the localized initial geometric imperfections had been found to govern the buckling problem. A parametric study was performed to determine their relative influence on the buckling load reduction. Reliability analysis was carried out by using first order reliability method. Results: Wavelet imperfection was found to be more severe than triangular form in the range of low amplitude imperfections. It was shown also by comparison with the single imperfection case that further diminution of the critical load is obtained for three interacting imperfections. The interval distance separating the localized geometric imperfections was found to have important influence on the reliability index. Conclusion/Recommendations: In the he range of investigated parameters, reliability was found to increase with the distance separating the localized geometric imperfections. This can help performing optimal design of assembled strakes.