Buckling Modes and Developable Postbuckling Modes of Axially Compressed Short Circular Cylindrical Shells

Abstract

The developability of thin circular cylindrical shells of infinite length leads to the postbuckling modes described by Yoshimura for shells under axial compression. Yamaki et al. calculated and measured experimentally the postbuckling modes of a cylindrical shell of finite length under axial compression. However, they did not calculate the buckling mode of the cylinder. To clarify the entire process of mode changes during buckling and postbuckling, an axial buckling mode is calculated and drawn for the cylinder whose corresponding postbuckling modes have been investigated by Yamaki et al. The axial postbuckling modes of finite length cylinders are shown to be deployable on flat surfaces due to the developability of cylindrical shells.