Cylindrical shells under global shear loading

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Figure 9.5 Buckled storage tank after earthquake (elephant foot mode).

Static loading
Overall shell dimensions: the interaction between shear and bending A shell that is subjected to a global or transverse shear load also experiences global bending. Where the shell is long, it is clear that bending will dominate, but in very short shells, shear will certainly dominate. The boundary between these two effects, and any interaction between them, must be explored before good design rules can be developed. It is also important to determine whether the buckling will be elastic or plastic. On the basis of a set of static tests, Matsuura et al. (1995) proposed that the form of the buckles could be found from the cylinder geometry alone. The test results are shown in Fig. 9.6, where all shells with an aspect ratio L/R less than 1.5 were found to buckle in shear. In thinner shells, shear buckling could also occur at larger aspect ratios. Matsuura et al. (1995) also compared their shear buckling test results with the formula (Eq. 4) of Timoshenko and Gere (1961) and so validated the elastic shear critical load evaluation (Fig. 9.7). Geometric imperfections Under most loading patterns, shell buckling strengths are sensitive to the form and amplitude of geometric imperfections in the shell surface. Buckling under torsion (uniform shear) is often less imperfection-sensitive than axial compression