Buckling of a thin spiral cylindrical shell constituted by a series of eccentric semicylinders

Abstract The present paper is concerned with the buckling of a thin spiral cylindrical shell constituted by a series of eccentric semicylinders. The spiral cylinder is the main pressurized element of the spiral cylinder heat exchanger. Since the configuration and boundary condition of the structure are very complex, it is impossible to solve the theoretical buckling pressure using the classical method. In this paper, the approximate solution is obtained by means of the finite element method. To verify the reliability of the results, experiments are performed. The experimental results show that the errors in manufacture will decrease the critical pressure dramatically.