The results of experimental investigations of the effect of elliptic cutouts on the buckling of thin cylindrical shells under axial compression are presented. The experiments were performed on Mylar shells with a radius to thickness ratio of 400 and with two diametrically opposed circular, elliptic or rectangular holes. The results show that, for a given shell geometry, the area of a cutout determined the shell buckling behavior, but that the configuration of the cutout had little influence on the buckling loads.
A simplified analytical study based on Van Dyke's stress analysis and a strictly empirical design formula which gives a lower bound for the existing experimental data are also presented
