Buckling Capacity Optimization of Coal Mine Refuge Chamber's Shell Under Uniform Axial Compression

The cylindrical shell with rectangle stiffeners was usually utilized in coal mine refuge chambers. Aiming at the buckling deformation of thin cylindrical shell under uniform axial compression, finite element analysis software ANSYS was employed to set up the optimization model of stiffened cylindrical shell, and the sequential linear programming method was executed to optimize the thickness of shell and the sizes of stiffener. The mechanical property after optimization was compared with the theoretical value of no-stiffener shell with equal volume, and reasonable stiffener distribution was obtained while the optimization results of five different longitudinal and circumferential stiffener patterns were gained. The results showed that the shell’s mechanical capacity of axial compression was basically not improved when the stiffeners were too sparse or overcrowded. Nevertheless, in the condition of reasonable stiffeners distribution, it could be improved by approximately 50%. The stiffener pattern and optimal results obtained in this paper are useful for refuge chamber’s shell design.