Effect of Prebuckling and Edge Support on Bifurcation Buckling of Torisphere, Cylinder and Cone

Abstract

This paper considers the buckling behaviour of commonly used shell structures in the offshore and oil industry. Three types of shells subjected to external pressure were examined, and they are: (i) torispheres, (ii) circular cylinders and (iii) truncated cones. It is assumed that shells are made from steel and the material is modeled as elastic material behaviour. Buckling strength for cases of different prebuckling/perturbation load and different edge support were obtained. In the case of transfer, results indicate that the magnitude of prebuckling/pertubation load has a significant effects on the bifurcation pressure. Whilst, changing the edge support has no effect on the buckling load. For the case of circular cylinder and cone, numerical calculation reveals that the magnitude of the prebuckling/pertubation load does not affect the bifurcation pressure. Whereas, in the case of different edge support, for a convergent solution to be obtained, the edge support must be either pinned or fully clamped at both ends. This is purely numerical study but the results of bifurcation pressure were compared with available data in open literature.