Re-interpreting simultaneous buckling modes of axially compressed isotropic conical shells

Elastic stability of shell structures under certain loading conditions is characterized by a dramatically unstable postbuckling behavior. The presence of simultaneous ‘competing’ buckling modes (corresponding to the same critical buckling load) is understood to be largely responsible for such behavior. In this paper, within the framework of linear bifurcation eigenvalue analysis and Donnell shallow shell theory, the presence of simultaneous buckling modes in axially compressed isotropic cones is determined using the semi-analytical method of Galerkin. The results are presented in the plane of the dimensionless reciprocal meridional and circumferential buckling half wavelengths, and are compared with the locus of simultaneous buckling modes of axially compressed cylinders, described by the so-called Koiter circle. By using an optimizing procedure, it is shown that the cluster of simultaneous buckling modes in cones is well described by the Koiter circle of an equivalent cylinder with appropriate length and radius. Such optimizing values of length and radius allow us to gain some insight into the simplifying treatment of the buckling of cones through the concept of equivalent cylinder

Effects of imperfection shapes on buckling of conical shells under compression

This paper describes a systematic numerical investigation into the nonlinear elastic behavior of conical shells, with various types of initial imperfections, subject to a uniformly distributed axial compression. Three different patterns of imperfections, including first axisymmetric linear bifurcation mode, first non-axisymmetric linear bifurcation mode, and weld depression are studied using geometrically nonlinear (mite element analysis. Effects of each imperfection shape and tapering angle on imperfection sensitivity curves are investigated and the lower bound curve is determined. Finally, an empirical lower bound relation is proposed for hand calculation in the buckling design of conical shells