Buckling behaviour of cylindrical shells with stepwise wall thickness subjected to combined axial compression and external pressure

Abstract An experimental study was conducted to investigate the buckling behaviour of cylindrical shells with a stepwise wall thickness when subjected to a combination of axial compression preloading and external pressure. A significant reduction was observed in the buckling load and the post-buckling capacity of the cylindrical shells with increasing the value of axial compression preloading. The existing analytical models for predicting the buckling load of the cylindrical shells were modified for cylindrical shells with stepwise wall thickness. A numerical model was developed and verified using the experimental results, and interaction graphs for the axial compression and external pressure were derived.