Plastic limit loads of cylinders with a circular opening under combined axial force and bending moment

Abstract

In this paper, limit analyses of cylindrical shells with a circular opening under the action of combined axial force and bending moment at the ends are carried out using both finite element methods and the approximate analytical lower-bound limit load of the weakest section of the cylinder. The finite element calculations consist of elastic-plastic and elastic compensation methods using an ANSYS suite of programs. The results obtained by the finite element methods are then compared with the approximate analytical lower-bound limit load of the cylinder, and the correlation between them is discussed.