Experimental Investigations of Prebuckled Cylinders Under External Pressure

Abstract

The prebuckled cylinder is a geometrical idealization of the actual buckled surface of an axially compressed circular cylinder. It is a polyhedral representation of the cylinder in which flat triangular surfaces are joined to form an undulated (corrugated) surface. Such surfaces have been generally regarded as failed forms of the cylinder; however, recent experimental investigations show that the prebuckled cylinder is remarkably more resistant to buckling failure under external pressure than the true cylinder. The prebuckled cylindrical (PC) shell can now be regarded as a new, unfailed structural form to resist external pressure.