Nonlinear dynamic buckling of orthotropic cylindrical shells subjected to rapidly applied loads

Dynamic buckling of an orthotropic cylindrical shell which is subjected to rapidly applied compression is considered. A nonlinear differential equation of Donnell–Karman type is derived with the initial imperfection taken into account. An energy method is used to obtain the equation of motion which is then solved numerically by means of a Runge-Kutta method. These numerical results show that the critical load is increased over the corresponding static case. An analytical solution is also obtained for the problem of hydrostatic pressure.