Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 42 (2006) 12111219

www.elsevier.com/locate/nel
Anon-linear nite-element analysis of buckle propagation in subsea
corroded pipelines
Jianghong Xue

Department of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510632, China
Received 22 October 2005; received in revised form 22 March 2006; accepted 28 May 2006
Available online 24 July 2006
Abstract
A non-linear nite-element analysis for the steady-state buckle propagation phenomenon in subsea corroded pipelines subjected to external
hydrostatic pressure is presented. The corroded pipeline is modeled as an innitely long, cylindrical shell with a non-uniform thickness region.
Using Maxwells theory of two coexisting phases and principle of virtual work, the buckle propagation pressures for the corroded pipeline
are calculated from pressurevolume change relations obtained from ABAQUS. The corresponding collapse modes of the corroded pipeline
are generated from ABAQUS post-analysis. Symmetric and anti-symmetric collapse modes are found to occur, depending on the depth and
angular extent of the corrosion. In addition, snap-through and global collapses are also identied. A parametric study shows how the buckle
propagation pressures decrease when either the ratio of corrosion depth to the normal thickness or the angular extent of the corrosion increases.
The nite-element model is validated using Timoshenkos classical solutions.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Corroded pipeline; Buckle propagation; Finite-element analysis; Symmetric and anti-symmetric collapse modes
1. Introduction
The elastic stability theory and its application can be di-
vided into categories of pre- and post-buckling [1]. Kyriakedes
et al. [2,3] have indicated that a perfect ring subjected to ex-
ternal pressure would fail at a buckling load or a bifurcation
pressure. Before the buckling load, the ring deforms follow-
ing a pre-buckling path. Along this stable pre-buckling path,
the ring experiences only contraction in radial direction, which
leads to a very small change in volume. Beyond the bifurcation
pressure, the ring deforms following a post-buckling path. For
elasticplastic material, the post-buckling behavior is highly
unstable. Fig. 1 schematically illustrates the pre- and post-
buckling behavior of a perfect ring with elasticplastic material
properties. When the external pressure acting on a ring increases
to a critical value, buckling occurs. With a very slight incre-
ment of the pressure, ovalization proceeds until yielding occurs
at the regions where the curvature changes most. Soon after the

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E-mail address: txuej@jnu.edu.cn.
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doi:10.1016/j.nel.2006.05.003
yielding, the load-carrying capability falls precipitously. When
the deformation is mostly conned to the plastic hinges, the
sharp decrease of the pressure begins to slow down. Finally,
contact happens at the two opposite quarter points, resulting in
substantial stiffening, and the pressure increases rapidly with a
very small area change of the ring.
Pre- and post-buckling behavior of a circular ring is often
related to the understanding of the buckle propagation problem
in the uniform pipeline subjected to external pressure. A local
collapse is triggered off at the weakened place of the pipeline
due to dropping particles, such as tools, rocks, etc. Once initi-
ated, it will propagate along the pipeline if the external pressure
is eater than the propagation pressure. Palmer and Martin [4]
were one of the pioneers to theoretically study the problem
of buckle propagation. Assuming rigid-perfect plastic material
behavior and ignoring the axial bending and stretching, they
proposed a four plastic hinge model to describe the collapse
mechanism of the pipeline during buckle propagation. Several
authors conducted subsequent investigation on this phe-
nomenon with more complicated model. Chater and Hutchin-
son [5] presented a numerical approach using the deformation
1212 J. Xue / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 42 (2006) 12111219
Elastic deformation
Elastic buckling
Elastic-plastic deformation
P
External
pressure
Change in area A
Plastic collapse
Touching
Buckle propagation
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of pre- and post-buckling behavior of a ring with elasticplastic material properties.
theory of plasticity to take into account the inuence of the
strain hardening. Kyriakedes et al. [2,3,611] conducted im-
mense theoretical and experimental studies on aspects of buckle
propagation, plastic collapse and buckle arrestors for different
pipeline systems of uniform thickness. Weizbicki [12,13] de-
veloped a moving hinge model, which takes into account the
effect of membrane stretch during propagation.
The ring model approach is extended to address the stabil-
ity problem of corroded pipelines. Bai et al. [1417] proposed
analytical solutions of elasticplastic buckling and plastic col-
lapse of corroded pipes under external pressure. In their anal-
ysis, the corrosion defect was considered to occur only in the
inner surface of the pipeline. Hoo Fatt et al. [18,19] later de-
rived analytical solutions of buckle propagation pressure for
corroded pipelines by assuming that the corrosion is symmet-
ric about the neutral surface of the pipeline. In these studies,
only symmetric failure mode was analyzed. Most recently, Xue
and Hoo Fatt [20] indicated that a corroded pipeline subjected
to external pressure would undergo either symmetric or anti-
symmetric buckling depending on the corrosion degree. Ana-
lytical solutions of buckle propagation pressure for corroded
pipelines were derived from rigid-plastic analysis using the col-
lapse mechanism of a non-uniform ring [21]. It was shown in
the analysis that post-buckling behavior of a non-uniform ring
is much more complicated than that of a uniform ring. Oval-
ization does not occur in a non-uniform ring. Due to the differ-
ence in the circumferential bending stiffening in the corroded
and uncorroded regions, the plastic hinges do not develop at
the quarter places as in the uniform ring. When the corrosion
is very severe and localized, contact never happen, while the
non-uniform thickness ring still becomes stiffening, resulting
in the rapid increasing of the pressure for a very small area
change.
In this paper, nite-element approach is used to analyze the
problem of buckle propagation in subsea corroded pipelines. In
particular, a pipeline made of steel grade X-77, with a radius
of 228.6 mm and non-corroded thickness of 18.29 mm, is an-
alyzed in ABAQUS program [22]. Using Maxwells theory of
two coexisting phases, the buckle propagation pressures for the
corroded pipeline are calculated from the load vs. area change
of a non-uniform ring generated from ABAQUS post-analysis.
Limit cases when no corrosion exists or corrosion is extremely
severe are studied. The nite-element model is validated by
comparing the buckling pressures obtained from ABAQUS for
limit cases with Timoshenkos predictions for global buckling
of a ring or snap-through buckling of an arch. Solutions ob-
tained herein are used to verify the analytical solutions pre-
sented in Ref. [21].
2. Finite-element approach
A propagating buckle will cause the formation of a transition
zone, which connects the un-buckled region with the buckled.
Fig. 2 shows a transition zone in a buckle propagation uniform
pipeline. The transition front attains a xed shape and sim-
ply translates along the pipeline during the steady-state buckle
propagation. Ignoring the longitudinal bending and membrane
stretching, the collapse in the transition zone of the corroded
pipeline is approximated by the collapse of a non-uniform ring
undergoing plain strain deformation. ABAQUS nite-element
program is used to simulate the deformation of the non-uniform
ring. The pre- and post-buckling behaviors of the corroded
pipeline are obtained from a ring model by replacing Youngs
modulus E with E/(1
2
) in an ABAQUS Standard program.
The collapse modes of the non-uniform ring are generated from
ABAQUS post-analysis.
2.1. Geometry
The corroded pipeline is modeled as a non-uniform, innitely
long cylindrical shell of radius R and cross-section shown in
Fig. 3(a). The non-uniform shell is divided into two regions of
J. Xue / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 42 (2006) 12111219 1213
thickness h given as follows:
h =
_
t d for Region 1 ( < <),
t for Region 2 ( < <2 ),
(1)
where t is the original thickness of the pipeline, d is the cor-
rosion depth and is the angular extension of the corrosion.
The non-uniform ring used in ABAQUS analysis should have
the same cross-section as the non-uniform shell does. Besides,
the deformation of the non-uniform ring is considered as a
one-dimensional problem. Two assumptions are made in or-
der to fulll the simulation: (1) the corroded region is the
same throughout the entire length of the shell; (2) the thickness
is symmetric about the circumferential neutral surface of the
shell in both Regions 1 and 2 as shown in Fig. 3(a). Solutions
T
r
a
n
s
i
t
i
o
n
R
e
g
i
o
n
U
n
b
u
c
k
l
e
d
R
e
g
i
o
n
B
u
c
k
l
e
d
R
e
g
i
o
n
U
T
Fig. 2. Buckle propagation in a uniform pipeline.
(a) (b)

R
Region 2
Region 1
t
d/2
d/2
p

3
1
2
Fig. 3. Finite-element analysis for a non-uniform ring subjected to external pressure: (a) a non-uniform ring under external pressure and (b) nite-element model.
obtained from such assumptions will also yield conservative
estimates of failure load.
2.2. Imperfection
An initial imperfection, which is often chosen as the fun-
damental buckling mode, is introduced in order to induce the
post-buckling analysis and to obtain the pre- and post-buckling
behavior of the non-uniform ring. It has been pointed out [20]
that the buckling of a non-uniform ring involves symmetric and
anti-symmetric modes; therefore the initial imperfection also
corresponds to symmetric and anti-symmetric modes, which
are given as follows:
Symmetric mode of imperfection:

S
() =
_

0
cos k
1cr
for ,

0
cos k
1cr

cos k
2cr
()
cos k
2cr
() for 2,
(2)
where
S
is the symmetric mode of imperfection,
0
the am-
plitude of initial imperfection, k
1cr
and k
2cr
are eigen-values
for symmetric buckling and are given in Table 1 for several
values of d/t the ratio of corrosion depth to the normal
thicknessand [23].
Anti-symmetric mode of imperfection:

A
() =
_

0
sin l
1cr
for ,

0
sin l
1cr

sin l
2cr
()
sin l
2cr
() for 2,
(3)
where
A
is the anti-symmetric mode of imperfection, l
1cr
and
l
2cr
are eigen-values for anti-symmetric buckling and are also
given in Table 1.
The mode of initial imperfection for the non-uniform ring
is accomplished by superimposing the symmetric mode on the
1214 J. Xue / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 42 (2006) 12111219
Table 1
Values of k
1cr
, k
2cr
, l
1cr
, and l
2cr
for several d/t and
(

)
d
t
Symmetric mode Anti-symmetric mode (

)
d
t
Symmetric mode Anti-symmetric mode
k
1cr
k
2cr
l
1cr
l
2cr
k
1cr
k
2cr
l
1cr
l
2cr
30 0.1 2.1944 1.9446 2.2281 1.9723 90 0.7 2.7838 1.0873 2.9631 1.1
30 0.3 2.7954 1.8268 2.8391 1.8498 90 0.9 2.9883 1.004 2.9991 1.004
30 0.5 4.0322 1.7051 3.5641 1.5693 120 0.1 2.0629 1.8367 2.0901 1.8589
30 0.7 5.7854 1.3699 4.8491 1.268 120 0.3 2.225 1.5346 2.2371 1.5406
30 0.9 6.1622 1.0183 8.5071 1.0351 120 0.5 2.4556 1.2762 2.3201 1.2441
45 0.1 2.1926 1.9431 2.1801 1.9328 120 0.7 2.6611 1.079 2.3551 1.0596
45 0.3 2.7779 1.8176 2.5971 1.7235 120 0.9 2.7275 1.0032 2.3641 1.0023
45 0.5 3.6297 1.588 3.2041 1.4691 135 0.1 2.0615 1.8355 2.0521 1.8278
45 0.7 4.123 1.1967 4.7561 1.2585 135 0.3 2.2166 1.5304 2.1241 1.4848
45 0.9 4.2832 1.0086 5.7611 1.016 135 0.5 2.3798 1.2581 2.1621 1.208
60 0.1 2.1842 1.9362 2.1421 1.9016 135 0.7 2.4772 1.0671 2.1781 1.0493
60 0.3 2.6504 1.7511 2.5031 1.6751 135 0.9 2.5045 1.0026 2.1831 1.0019
60 0.5 3.0645 1.4314 3.1721 1.4604 150 0.1 2.0552 1.8304 2.0201 1.8016
60 0.7 3.3113 1.1265 4.1411 1.1983 150 0.3 2.167 1.5059 2.0461 1.4467
60 0.9 3.4379 1.0054 4.3681 1.009 150 0.5 2.2518 1.2283 2.0591 1.1853
90 0.1 2.1107 1.8758 2.1261 1.8885 150 0.7 2.2943 1.056 2.0651 1.0431
90 0.3 2.3118 1.578 2.4651 1.6557 150 0.9 2.3059 1.0022 2.0671 1.0016
90 0.5 2.5143 1.2904 2.8081 1.3641
anti-symmetric one as follows:

i
() =
_

0
(cos k
1cr
+sin l
1cr
)
for ,

0
_
cos k
1cr

cos k
2cr
( )
cos k
2cr
( )
+
sin l
1cr

sin l
2cr
( )
sin l
2cr
( )
_
for 2 .
(4)
The non-uniform ring with initial imperfection will not buckle.
Essentially, the response of the non-uniform ring is character-
ized by a limit load type of instability. The amplitude of the
initial imperfection
0
in ABAQUS analysis is chosen as only
0.01 of its nominal thickness t such that the limit load on the
loadarea change curve, which is very sensitive to
0
, is just
slight below its buckling pressure. Therefore, one can apply
the loadarea change curve to approximate the pre- and post-
buckling behavior of the non-uniform ring and the buckle prop-
agation pressure obtained from this curve is hardly affected.
2.3. Mesh and boundary conditions
The non-uniform ring is discretized into a mesh with two-
node, isoparametric, linear, Timoshenko beam elements (B21).
The mesh has 72 elements as shown in Fig. 3(b), consisting of
two element sets: one corresponds to Region 1, the corroded
part; the other corresponds to Region 2, the un-corroded. The
element numbers of Regions 1 and 2 are not given in Fig. 3(b)
since they vary with the change of the angular extension .
A multi-point constrain is used to tie node 1 with node 73 since
solutions at the two nodes must be the same.
Three boundary conditions have been used at node 37, the
mid-point of neutral surface in Region 2, as shown in Fig. 3(b):
Degree 1 is zero, which connes the movement in axis 1; De-
gree 2 is zero, which connes the movement in axis 2; Degree
6 is zero, which restricts the ring from rotating around axis 3.
The reasons for using the above three boundary conditions are
twofold: (1) these are the minimum constraints to prevent the
structure from moving as a rigid body and (2) constraining only
one point allows the structure to choose any buckling mode,
symmetric or anti-symmetric. Any other boundary conditions
will over-constrain the structure and will result in higher pres-
sures.
2.4. Material properties
The pipeline is considered to be made of steel grade X-77.
The stressstrain relationship of such material can be described
as linear elastic power law hardening and is given by Tvergaard
[24] as follows:
=
_
E,
yp
,

yp
_
nE

yp
+1 n
_
1/n
, >
yp
,
(5)
where n = 10.0 is the strain exponent,
yp
= 0.002 the yield
strain, =0.3 the Poissons ratio and E=207 Gpa the Youngs
modulus. The ratio of the yield strength to theYoungs modulus
is
yp
/E =0.002.
Under the action of external pressure, the non-uniform ring
undergoes elasticplastic collapse. Failure mode such as frac-
ture does not occur in the simulated post-buckling process.
Therefore, the ring can deform indenitely. The range of the
strain should be reasonable chosen in ABAQUS code so that
the actual stressstrain curve is accurately approximated by a
multi-linear curve to cover the whole strain range of interest.
J. Xue / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 42 (2006) 12111219 1215
Kyriakedes et al. [7] have shown that the maximum strain in a
uniform ring undergoing plane strain deformation is about 0.2
for d/t = 20. Xue [23] also gave an alike prediction. For the
non-uniform ring, the maximum strain is chosen as 0.4 even
though the ring might not deform that further. More than 40
points are used to interpolate the actual curve.
2.5. Loading and analyzing procedure
The load carrying capacity of the non-uniform ring, after
the critical point, decreases with the increasing amplitude of
the radial deection due to the highly unstable post-buckling
behavior of elasticplastic material. RIKS procedure is used to
analyze the unstable collapse of the non-uniform ring. In each
step of analysis, the external pressure is incremented using a
load proportional factor and NLGEOM parameter is included to
account for the geometric non-linearity. FORTRAN programs
are developed to obtain load vs. area change curve from the
data le generated in ABAQUS analysis.
3. Post-buckling behavior
As an example, a non-uniform ring with a radius R =
228.6 mm and nominal thickness t = 18.29 mm is ana-
lyzed. Post-buckling processes are simulated for cases when
d/t = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9 and = 30

, 45

, 60

, 90

,
120

, 135

and 150

. The collapse modes are obtained from

ABAQUS post-analysis. They are shown in Figs. 47 for
= 45

, 60

, 90

, and 135

. The corresponding buckling

modes [20] are also plotted in Figs. 47 to demonstrate how the
non-uniform ring deforms from the buckling mode to the nal
collapse mode. From Figs. 47, the following post-buckling
behaviors are observed for the non-uniform ring.
Fig. 4. (a) Buckling and (b) collapse modes for =45

.
(i) Symmetric and anti-symmetric collapse: Due to the non-
uniformity, symmetric and anti-symmetric collapse modes ex-
ist for a non-uniform ring. The collapse mode of the non-
uniform ring depends on the corrosion degree, i.e. the values
of d/t and , even through the mode of initial imperfection is
introduced by combining the symmetric buckling mode with
the anti-symmetric one. In general, when d/t 0, the non-
uniform ring degenerates into a uniform ring and undergoes
symmetric collapse; when d/t 1, the corroded section of
the non-uniform ring becomes a circular arch with built-in ends
and experiences anti-symmetric collapse.
(ii) Global and snap-through collapse: Global and snap-
through collapse modes can occur in the post-buckling pro-
cess of the non-uniform ring. When d/t 0.1 or 135

, only
global collapse happens. The pressure decreases until one point
on the non-uniform ring almost touches another point on the
opposite side of the ring. When 90

and d/t 0.7, snap-

through happens. The pressure drops to the lowest value be-
fore the contact happens. Furthermore, the contact happens at
a pressure level, which might be even higher than elastic buck-
ling pressure. Fig. 8 shows pre- and post-buckling behaviors
of the non-uniform ring undergoing global and snap-through
collapses.
4. Buckle propagation pressure
During steady-state buckle propagation, the shape of the
transition zone does not change. The change in volume of a uni-
form pipeline when a buckle propagates a unit length forward
is V
T
V
U
, where V
T
and V
U
denote volume changes
far behind and ahead of the transition zone, as shown in Fig. 2.
The volume changes V
T
and V
U
at point T and U can be
approximated, respectively, by the area changes A
T
and A
U
of a ring segment with unit thickness. Chater and Hutchinson
[5] have pointed out that when the ring material is such that
1216 J. Xue / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 42 (2006) 12111219
Fig. 5. (a) Buckling and (b) collapse modes for =60

.
Fig. 6. (a) Buckling and (b) collapse modes for =90

.
Fig. 7. (a) Buckling and (b) collapse modes for =135

.
J. Xue / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 42 (2006) 12111219 1217
P
Change in area, A
Elastic buckling
Plastic collapse
Touching
Propagation
P
Change in area, A
Elastic buckling
Plastic collapse
Snap-through line
Snap-through
touching
(a) (b)
Fig. 8. Pre- and post-buckling behaviors of a non-uniform ring undergoing: (a) global collapse and (b) snap-through collapse.
External
pressure
P
R
2
P
p
U
AU
P
cr
P
m
Change in area, A
T
AT
R
1
Fig. 9. Maxwells condition of two coexisting phases.
the work done during deformation is independent of the loading
path, the work done can be calculated strictly from the initial
and nal congurations of the ring. Therefore, the external work
to propagate a buckle by a unit length is p(A
T
A
U
). The
internal work is the stress work absorbed by the ring segment
of unit length when it deforms from state U to state T, which is
_
A
T
A
U
p(A) dA. The propagation pressure is the pressure that
can sustain two solutions for the equilibrium pressure behind
and ahead of the transition front and is [5]
p
p
(A
T
A
U
) =
_
A
T
A
U
p(A) dA. (6)
On the pre- and post-buckling behavior of a uniform ring,
Eq. (6) is the condition of Maxwells two coexisting phases
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
P
p
d/t
= 30
= 150
= 135
= 120
= 90
= 60
= 45
Fig. 10. Variation of buckle propagation pressure p
p
with respect to d/t for
several .
which requires R
1
=R
2
, as shown in Fig. 9. Therefore, it re-
lates the problem of buckle propagation in a uniform pipeline
to that of the elastic buckling and post-buckling of a uniform
ring element in plane strain.
Numerical solutions of buckle propagation pressure for the
corroded pipeline are calculated from Eq. (6) using the pre- and
post-buckling behaviors of the non-uniform ring obtained from
ABAQUS analysis. Cases are examined for d/t =0.1, 0.3, 0.5,
0.7 and 0.9, and =30

, 45

, 60

, 90

, 120

, 135

and 150

.
Fig. 10 shows variation of the buckle propagation pressure p
p
with respect to d/t for several . One can see from Fig. 10
that the buckle propagation pressures decrease with increasing
values of d/t and .
1218 J. Xue / Finite Elements in Analysis and Design 42 (2006) 12111219
Table 2
Comparison of buckling pressures p
cr
between ABAQUS results and Timo-
shenkos solutions
45

60

90

120

150

180

(uni. shell)
k 5.782 4.375 3 2.364 2.066 2
p
cr
(MPa)
Timoshenkos solution 0.315 0.176 0.0777 0.0445 0.0317 0.0291
ABAQUS results 0.321 0.178 0.078 0.0447 0.0319 0.0289
5. Comparison with Timoshenkos classical solutions
It can be seen from Fig. 3(a) that when the value of d/t
approaches one but not equal one, the corroded section of the
non-uniform ring behaves like a circular arch with built-in ends
since the stiffness in the un-corroded region is much larger than
that in the corroded; on the other hand, when the angular ex-
tension approaches 180

, the non-uniform shell degenerates

into a uniform shell. Timoshenko [25] gave the classical solu-
tion of buckling pressure for a circular arch with built-in ends
subjected to external pressure. Rewrite it as following:
p
cr
=
E
12(1
2
)
_
t d
R
_
3
(k
2
1), (7)
where t d is the residual thickness of Region 1, k is the buck-
ling parameter of the arch and is given in Table 2 for several
value of [25]. Eq. (7) is the exact solution of buckling pres-
sure p
cr
for Region 1 in Fig. 3(a) when d/t 1 and d/t = 1.
In reality, we regard the non-uniform shell as a circular arch
with built-in ends when d/t = 0.9. The approximation can be
but even better when 0.9 <d/t <1. Note that when =180

,
k=2. The arch becomes a uniform cylindrical shell, and Eq. (7)
regresses to the solution for a uniform cylindrical shell. Sub-
stituting E =207 GPa, =0.3, R =228.6 mm, t =18.29 mm
and d/t =0.9 into Eq. (7) yields the buckling pressures p
cr
for
the arch and for the uniform cylindrical shell, depending on the
value of . Solutions are listed in Table 2.
In ABAQUS program, the amplitude of initial imperfection

0
is set to be zero and the buckling procedure is selected so as
to conduct the buckling analysis. All the other parameters re-
main the same as those in the model for elasticplastic collapse
analysis of the non-uniform ring. Cases when d/t = 0.9 and
=45

, 60

, 90

, 120

, 150

and 180

are simulated. The re-

sults are shown in Table 2 to compare with Timoshenkos solu-
tions. It can be seen that the discrepancies between ABAQUSs
results and Timoshenkos solutions are negligible.
6. Conclusion
Finite-element approach was applied to obtain the buckle
propagation pressures and modes for subsea corroded pipelines.
The corroded pipeline was modeled as a non-uniform shell with
a region of uniformly reduced thickness symmetric about its
neutral surface. Using Maxwells two coexisting phases, nu-
merical solutions of buckle propagation pressure were calcu-
lated from pressurevolume relations obtained fromABAQUS.
It was found that (1) the propagation pressures decrease with
the increasing values of d/t and ; (2) the corroded pipeline un-
dergoes global collapse when d/t 0.1 or 135

and snap-
through collapse when 90

and d/t 0.7; and (3) when

d/t 0.9, the corroded pipeline turns into a circular arch with
built-in ends and experiences anti-symmetric collapse; on the
other hand, when d/t 0 or 180

, the corroded pipeline

approaches that of a uniform pipeline with a symmetric col-
lapse mode. Limiting cases of the nite-element model was
validated against Timoshenkos classical solutions.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to express deep appreciation for Pro-
fessor M.S. Hoo Fatts guidance in completing the reported
work. The work presented herein was conducted with the nan-
cial support of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of
The University of Akron, Guangdong NSF, Grant No. 5300452,
the Scientic Research Foundation for Returned Overseas Chi-
nese Scholars, State Education Ministry of China, and a Faculty
Research Foundation of Jinan University (Guangzhou, China).
References
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23 (1970) 13531356.
[2] S. Kyriakedes, C.D. Babcock, Large deection collapse analysis of an
inelastic inextensional ring under external pressure, Int. J. Solids Struct.
17 (10) (1981) 981993.
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