Buckling analysis of a ring under the action of internal pressure in a cylindrical shell

Buckling analysis of a thin cylindrical shell stiffened by rings with T-shaped cross section under the action of uniform internal pressure in the shell is performed. An annular plate stiffened over the outer edge by a circular beam is used as the ring model. The classical ring model, which is a beam with a T-shaped cross section, is inappropriate in this problem, since in the case of the loss of stability, buckling deformations are localized on the ring surface. The beam model does not allow one to find the critical pressure that corresponds to such a loss of stability. In the first approximation, the problem of the loss of stability of the annular plate connected with the shell is reduced to solving the boundary value problem for finding eigenvalues of the annular plate bending equation. Approximate formulas for determining critical pressure are obtained under the assumption that the plate width is much smaller than its inner radius. The results found using the Rayleigh method and the shooting method differ slightly from each other. It has been demonstrated that the critical pressure for rings with rectangular cross section is higher than that for rings with a T-shaped cross section. © 2016, Allerton Press, Inc.