Buckling under external pressure of cylindrical shells

with variable thickness

Hien Luong T. Nguyen
a, b, *

fau.hnguyen@fau.edu
I. Elishakoff
a
elishako@fau.edu
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Florida Atlantic Univesity
Boca Raton, Florida 33431, USA
Vinh T. Nguyen
b

b
Department of Civil Enginerring
The Hochiminh City University of Technology
268 Ly Thuong Kiet St., Dst. 10
Hochiminh City, Vietnam
en_nguyenthanhvinh@yahoo.com

Abstract
This study focuses on the buckling of cylindrical shells with small thickness variations
under external pressure. Asymptotic formulas in terms of the thickness non-uniformity
parameter are derived by the combined perturbation and Bubnov-Galerkin methods. In
addition to the analytic investigation based on the thin shell theory, a numerical analysis is
also performed. Results from these formulas are discussed and compared with those obtained
by other authors.

Keywords : buckling, cylindrical shell, variable thickness
1. Introduction
In recent years, the study on stability of thin structural components with variable
thickness has attracted attention to many researchers (Elishakoff et al., 2001; Nguyen and
Tran, 2005; Nguyen and Dang, 2006; Nguyen and Thach, 2006; Nguyen and Thach, 2006;
Gusic et al., 2000; Combescure and Gusic, 2001). Elishakoff et al (2001) apparently
pioneered the study of the effect of axisymmetric imperfections in the shape of the
axisymmetric buckling mode on the stability of cylindrical shells under axial compression.
Nguyen et al (2005, 2006) investigated the buckling of thin rectangular plates and shell
panels with variable thickness investigated the stability of thin imperfect rectangular plates,
cylindrical panels with variable thickness by the hybrid perturbation- Galerkin and the energy
methods. By means of FE bifurcation analysis, Gusic et al (2000, 2001) analyzed the
influence of thickness variation in the circumferential direction on thin cylindrical shell
buckling under external pressure and studied the effect of geometrical imperfection.
The major objective of this study is to investigate the buckling under external pressure of
cylindrical shells with thickness variation in axial direction, based on the refined thin shell
theory. The hybrid pertubation-Galerkin method is utilized to determine the critical load
factor of cylindrical shells with variable thickness. The influence of the thickness non-
uniformity parameter on the buckling load is investigated. General asymptotic formulas for
the buckling load are derived and numerical results are investigated for simply supported
shells under external pressure.

2. Governing Differential Equations
Consider a cylindrical shell with small thickness variation loaded in its mid-plane by
uniform external pressure q (Fig.1). The shell thickness is not uniform in the x direction and
the radius of cylindrical shell isR . We denote ) 2 , 1 , ( , ,
0 0 0
= j i W N
ij ij
in-plane forces, strains
in the mid-plane, and deflection in the fundamental pre-buckling state, respectively;
) 2 , 1 , ( , , ,
1 1 1 1
= j i W M N
ij ij ij
are stretching forces, moments, strains in the mid-plane,
deflection in the adjacent buckling state, respectively. We have the increments of solutions at
buckling:
) 2 , 1 , ( , , , ,
1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1
= = = = = = = j i W W W W M M M M N N N
ij ij ij ij ij ij ij ij ij ij
(1)
It is noted that in the buckling state 0 , 0
0 0
= = W M
ij
. We use the basic general equations in
terms of increments to solve the stability problem of cylindrical shell under external pressure.
L
x
y
z
R
q
O

Fig.1. Geometry of the externally pressured cylindrical shell
In the case of small deflection, the straindisplacement increment relations are of the form
(Elishakoff, 2001):
, , ,
x
V
y
U
R
W
y
V
x
U
xy y x

= (2)
where V U, are displacements in x and y directions, respectively.
By taking the second derivative of these expressions and combining the resulting
expressions, we obtain the compatibility equation :

2
2
2
2 2
2
2
1
x
W
R x y x y
y xy
x

(3)
We use the stability equation in terms of bending and twisting moment increments
(Kliusnikov, 1986) in case of cylindrical shell under external pressure:

R
N
y
W
N
y
M
y x
M
x
M
y
y
y xy
x
2
2
0
2
2 2
2
2
2 (4)
In deriving the buckling equation of cylindrical shell of variable thickness based on the
thin shell theory, we assume that there is no abrupt variation in thickness so that the
expression for bending and twisting moment increments derived for shells of constant
thickness would be applied with sufficient accuracy to this case also. In these circumstances,
we obtain:

y x
W
y x D M
x
W
R
W
y
W
y x D M
y
W
x
W
y x D M
xy
y
x

=
2
2
2
2 2
2
2
2
2
2
) 1 )( , (
) , (
) , (

(5)
where
) 1 ( 12
) , (
) , (
2
3

=
y x Eh
y x D
Note that the second constitutive relation in Eq. (5) contains the term
2
R
W
due to use of the
refined expression for the curvature
y
, according to Volmir (1967, p.548). We express the
relations of strain components in the mid-plane of the cylindrical shell and the membrane
forces increments
xy y x
N N N , , by the known formulas representing the Hooke law:

) , (
) 1 ( 2
) , ( ) , ( y x Eh
N
y x Eh
N N
y x Eh
N N
xy
xy
x y
y
y x
x

+
=

= (6)
The solution of the equilibrium equations is greatly simplified by introducing the Airy stress
function F defined as :

y x
F
N
x
F
N
y
F
N
xy y x

=
2
2
2
2
2
(7)
Substituting Eq.(6) into Eq.(3) and taking into account Eq.(7) yields :

+ +

2
2
3
2 2 2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
2 2 2
1
) 1 ( 2 ) 1 ( 4
2 2
2 2
x
W
R
Eh
y x
F
y x
h
h
y x
F
y
h
x
h
x
F
y
F
y
h
h
y
h
y x
F
y
F
y
h
h
y
F
x
F
x
h
h
x
h
y x
F
x
F
x
h
h F h

(8)
For the cylindrical shell is under action of uniform external pressure (Fig.1), we substitute
Eq. (5) in the buckling Eq. (4) and observe that the flexural rigidity D is no longer a constant
but the function of coordinate x. We arrive at the following equations:
2
2
2
2 2
2 2 2
2 2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2 2
3
3
3
2
2
2 2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2 2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2 2
2
3
1
) 1 (
) 1 ( 2 ) 1 ( 12
3
1
) 1 ( 12
6
) 1 ( 12
6
) 1 ( 12
6
) 1 ( 12
3
) 1 ( 12
6 1
) 1 ( 12
x
F
R y
W
R q
y x
W
y
h
x
h Eh
y x
W
y x
h Eh
R
W
x
W
y
W
y
h Eh
y
W
R y x
W
y
W
y
h Eh
R
W
x
W
y
W
y
h Eh
y
W
x
W
x
h Eh
y
W
x
W
x
h Eh
y x
W
x
W
x
h Eh
y
W
R
W
Eh
cr

+
+

+
+

+
+

+
+

+ +

(9)
with
2
2
2
2
y x

= ,
where W and F represent the displacement and stress functions, respectively, is Poissons
ratio, E is the modulus of elasticity, R is the radius of cylindrical shell. Eqs. (8)- (9)
constitute the governing differential equations for small deflections of cylindrical shell with
variable thickness.
In Eqs. (8) - (9), h is the cylindrical shell thickness, which is assumed here to vary
trigonometrically in x direction:

= ) cos( 1 ) (
0 0
R
x
p h x h , 0 (10)
where
0
h is the cylindrical shell nominal thickness;
0
, p are the non-dimensional parameters
indicating the magnitude and wave of the thickness variation, respectively. For
L
R
p =
0
,
2 / L x = and 2 / L x = one has
0
) ( h x h = ; for 0 = x one has ) 1 ( ) (
0
= h x h as shown in
Fig.2. The thickness parameter is taken as varying from zero to 0.2 and is positive in order
to achieve a worst, detrimental effect by a thinning of the wall thickness.
To make the resulting solutions more generally, we transform the above equations using
non-dimensional parameters as follows:
0 0
, , , ,
D
F
f
L
W
w
L
y
L
x
h
h
H = = = = = (11)

Fig.2. Expression graph of thickness variation ) (x h when 1 . 0 = , 1 = m
The governing differential Eqs. (8) - (9) can be rewritten in the non-dimensional form:
( )
( )
2
2
2
0
3 3 2
2
3
2
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
4
4
2 2
4
4
4
2
1 12
1 2 2
2 2

+


+

w
Rh
L H f
d
dH
H
f f
d
dH
H
f f H
H
f f
d
dH f f f
H
(12)
0 2
6
3 6 1
2
2
2
2
4
4
2 2
4
4
4
3
3
2
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
3 2
2
0
2
2
2
=

+


+

w
R
L w w w
L
H w w
d
dH
L
H
w w
d
H d
L
H w w
d
dH
L
H w
L D
R q f
R L
cr
(13)
If the cylindrical shell is simply-supported around the periphery then the boundary
conditions will be:

0
2
1
0
2
1
0
2
1
0
2
1
0
2
1
0
2
1
0
2
1
0
2
1
' ' ' '
' ' ' '
=

w w
w w
f f
f f
(14)

3. Hybrid Pertubation Galerkin Method
In view of the separation of variables, stress and deflection function can be chosen as
satisfying the boundary conditions (14) as follows:

( ) ( )
( ) ( )

R
nL
w w
R
nL
f f
cos ,
cos ,
=
=
(15)
with

( )
L
R k
p
R
pL
A w

) 1 2 (
cos
+
=

=
, (16)
where n denoting the number of circumferential buckling waves. According to the
experiment, shell buckles when the number of axial bukling waves 0 = k and the most
detrimental thickness variation mode is
L
R
p p = =
0
, that is ( ) ) cos( 1 ) (
0
= h x h . Eqs.
(12) and (13) are thus transformed into ordinary differential equations :
0 ' ' 4
2 ' 2
' ' 2 2 2
3 2 2
2
2
2
2
2
4
2
2
2
2
2 2
2
) 3 ( ) 4 (
2
= +

+
w H z c
f
R
nL
d
dH
H
R
nL
d
dH
R
nL
H f
R
nL
d
dH
H
f
d
H d
H
d
dH
R
L n
H f
d
dH
H f H

(17)
0 cos ' ' 3
6 ' 6
' ' 3 6 2 ' ' ' 6
2
0
2
2
2
2
2
2 2 2
2
2
3
4
3
2
2
2
2
2
2 2
3 2
) 4 (
3
=

R
nL
f
R
L
w
R
nL
R q
D
L
R
nL
d
H d
H
R
nL
d
dH
H
R
nL
R
L
H
R
nL
H w
R
nL
d
dH
H
w
d
H d
H
d
dH
H
R
nL
H w
d
dH
H w H
cr
(18)
In order to solve the compatibility equation (17) for f , the pertubation procedure will be
employed hereinafter. To this end, f is expressed in term of the thickness variation
parameter as :
) ( ) ( ) (
1 0
f f f + = (19)
Substituting (19) into (17) and keeping Eq.(10) in mind, and collecting the like terms
yield :
0 ] ) cos( 2 ) sin( 2 ) cos( 12
) cos( 4 ) cos( ) sin( 2 ) cos(
) cos( 2 2 [ 4 2
) 4 (
0
' ' '
0
' '
0
2 2
' '
0
2 ' '
0
2 '
0
2
0
2 2
0
4
1
4 ' '
1
2 ) 4 (
1
' ' 2 2
0
0
4 ' '
0
2 ) 4 (
0
=
+ +
+ + + +
f P f P P w P
h
L
z c
f P N f P P f P P N f P P N
f P N f N f N f w z c
h
L
f N f N f



(20)
where ) 1 ( 3
2
0
= = = = c
Rh
L
z
R
nL
N
R
pL
P (21)
From equation (20), we obtain :
' ' 2 2
0
0
4 ) ( w z c
h
L
f L = (22)
) 4 (
0
' ' '
0
' '
0
2 2 ' '
0
2 ' '
0
2
'
0
2
0
2 2
0
4
1
) cos( 2
) sin( 2 ) cos( 12 ) cos( 4 ) cos(
) sin( 2 ) cos( ) cos( 2 ) (
f P
f P P w P
h
L
z c f P N f P P
f P P N f P P N f P N f L

+
+ + +
+ =
) (23)
where the operator ) ( f L is defined as follows :
f N f N f f L
4 ' ' 2 4
2 ) ( + = (24)
Equations (22) (24) and the boundary conditions (14) are solved here analytically with the
aid of the computerized symbolic algebra Matlab for
0
f and
1
f :
P a f cos
1 0
= (25)
) 2 cos(
))]} 6 3 ( ) 2 1 )( 4 31 ( ) 2 1 )( 19 (
) 2 1 ( 12 ) 2 21 ( 4 ) 2 15 ( 8 48 20 (
)) 6 3 ( ) 2 1 )( 4 31 ( ) 2 1 )( 19 (
) 2 1 ( 12 ) 2 21 ( 4 ) 2 15 ( 8 48 20 (
)) 6 3 ( ) 2 1 )( 4 31 ( ) 2 1 )( 19 (
) 2 1 ( 12 ) 2 21 ( 4 ) 2 15 ( 8 48 20 (
)) 6 3 ( ) 2 1 )( 4 31 ( ) 2 1 )( 19 (
) 2 1 ( 12 ) 2 21 ( 4 ) 2 15 ( 8 48 20 (
)) 6 ( 3 2 ( ) 4 ( 2 )) 6 ( 3
2 ( ) 4 ( )) 6 ( 3 2 ( ) 4 ( [
))] 2 1 ( 4 ) 2 1 ( 16 8 (
)) 2 1 ( 4 ) 2 1 ( 16 8 (
)) 2 1 ( 4 ) 2 1 ( 16 8 (
)) 2 1 ( 4 ) 2 1 ( 16 8 (
) 4 ( 2 ) 4 ( ) 4 ( [ 12 {
) 4 ( ) 1 ( 2
1
2
7 4 3 2 5
6 2 4 4 2 6 6 2 2 / 3
7 4 3 2 5
6 2 4 4 2 6 6 2 2 2 /
7 4 3 2 5
6 2 4 4 2 6 6 2 2 /
7 4 3 2 5
6 2 2 4 2 6 6 2 2 2 / 3
2 2 4 4 2 2 2 2 2 4
4 2 2 2 ) 2 ( 2 2 4 4 2 2 2
0 1
2 3 2 2 2 2 / 3
2 3 2 2 2 2 2 /
2 3 2 2 2 2 /
2 3 2 2 2 2 2 / 3
2 2 2 2 2 ) 2 ( 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2 4
0
1

P a
N P N P N
NP P N P N P N P e
N P N P N
NP P N P N P N P e
N P N P N
NP P N P N P N P e
N P N P N
NP P N P N P N P e
P N P N P N e P N P
N P N e P N P N P N e h a
NP N P N P e
NP N P N P e
NP N P N P e
NP N P N P e
P N e P N e P N e z LP Ac
e
P N e N h
f
N
N N
N
N N
N N
N N
N
N N
N
N N
N N N N
N
N
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + +
+ + + + + + + +
+ + + + + + +
+ + + + + +
+ + + +
+ + + + + +
+ + + +
+ + + + + +
+ +
=
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ +

where :
2 2 2
0
2 2 2
1
) (
4
P N h
z P L c A
a
+
=


Applying the Bubnov Galerkin procedure to the equilibrium equation (18), we arrive at
( ) 0 cos ' ' ) ( 3
) ( 6 ) ( ' 6
' ' 3 6 2 ' ' ' 6
2
0
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2 2 3
2
2
2 2
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2 3
/ 2
0
2 / 1
2 / 1
2
) 4 (
3
=

+ +

+ +

d wd N f
R
L
w RN q
D
L
R
L
N
d
H d
H
R
L
N
d
dH
H
R
L
N N H w
R
L
N
d
dH
H
w H
R
L
d
H d
H
d
dH
H N H w
d
dH
H w H
cr
L R
(26)
2 2 2
0
2 2 4 4
0 1
2 2 2
2
) 4 ( 2
)) 2 ( 2 ( 12
P N h
P N P N h a z LP Ac
a
+
+ + +
=

where ) cos( ) cos( P N w = . Substituting (19) with
i
f into Eq.(26) and making some
algebraic manipulation lead to an eigenvalue problem with attendant buckling load owing to
the thickness variation.

4. Determination of Buckling Load
From Eq.(26) we obtain the following expression:

[
( )
( ) ( ) ( ) ] 0 } ) 1 ( 4 2 ) 8 ( ) 8 ( ) 8 (
) ( 3 ) ) 1 ( 4 3 2
) 8 3 ( ) 8 3 ( ( 4 { ) ( 3
2 2 4 4 2 2 2
4 2 2
0
2 2
1
4 4 2 4 2 2
0
3 4 2 2 2 2
0
= + + +
+ + + +
+ + + +



N N R N L
N h N
N Rz L c D R q N N L h A
cr
(27)
where A is the amplitude of deflection of the cylindrical shell ( 0 A ). Consider the
normalized quantity as follows:

0
cr
cr
q
q
= (28)
where is the non-dimensional buckling load factor due to the thickness variation,
0
cr
q is the
buckling load of the cylindrical shell with constant thickness,
cr
q is the buckling load of the
cylindrical shell with variable thickness.
Substituting 0 = into Eq. (27), the buckling load of the cylindrical shell with constant
thickness (
0
h h = ) is determined as:
2 2 2 2 2 2
4 3
0
3
0
2 3 4
2 2 2 2 2
0 0
) (
) (
R n L n
R Eh
R
D
n R L
R n L D
q
cr

+
+
+
= (29)
For 0 , from Eq. (27), the buckling load of the cylindrical shell with variable thickness
) (x h h = is obtained:
)))] 1 ( ) 1 (
) 1 ( ) 1 ( ( 4 )) 1 (
) 1 ( ( ) ( ( 8 [
) ) ( (
1
) (
) (
2 4 4 2 4 4
2 2 2 2 6 4 4 2 2 2 2 4 4
2 2 4 4 2 2 2 2 2
0 0
4 2 2 2 3 3 2 2
0
2 2 2 2 2 2
4 3
0
3
0
2 3 4
2 2 2 2 2
0

+ + + +
+ + + + +
+
+

+
+
+
=
R n L
n L R L R n L R
n n L R n L h D
R L n L R n h
R n L n
R Eh
R
D
n R L
R n L D
q
cr
(30)
Substituting Eqs. (29)-(30) into Eq. (28), the non-dimensional buckling load factor due to the
thickness variation becomes :
)))) 1 ( 12 6 ( ) 1 (
) 2 1 ( 2 4 ( ) ( ( / )))] 1 ( 4
) 4 11 ( ( )) 1 ( 4 ) 4 11 ( 6 (
)) 3 7 ( ) 1 ( ) 1 ( 2 2 ( 2
)) 5 ( 4 ( ) 5 ( ) 1 ( ( 8 [ 1
2 2
1
4 2 4
1
4 8
1
2 6
6
1
2 2 4 2
1
6 2 8 2 2
1
2 2 2 2
1
4 2 4
1
8 2 2
1
4 2 8
1
4 4
4 2 2
1
2 6
1
6 2
2 10
1
2 8 2
1
10 2 12
1
2 10 12





+ + + + +
+ + + + +
+ + + + + + +
+ + + + + +
+ + + + + + + =
y n n x x n n
x n n x n x n y
n n x y n n x n
n y n x n
n x n x n x n n
(31)
with
0
1 1
h
R
y
R
L
x = = (32)
5. Numerical Analysis, Comparison and Discussion
From expression (29), when 0 = we have the well known formula for the buckling load
of the perfect shell under external pressure (Kliusnikov, 1986; Volmir, 1967;
Voldenitcharova, Ansourian, 1996):
3
0
2
2 2
2 2
2
0
2
2
2
2
0
3
0
2 2 2 2 2 2
4 3
0
2 3 4
2 2 2 2 2
0
1
) (
) (
R
D
R
L n
Rn
Eh
nL R
n
R D
R
D
R n L n
R Eh
n R L
R n L D
q
cr

+
+

+ =
=
+
+
+
=

(33)
This formula is in good agreement with Volmir formula (Volmir, 1967) if the following
requirement is satisfied:
1
2

nL
R
(34)
Then the formula (33) can be simplified as follows:
2
2
0
6
0
4
5 4
0
2
2
0
) 1 (
) 1 ( 12
1
R
Eh
n h L
R
R
h n
q
cr

, (35)
which becomes minimum when the number of circumferential buckling waves
cr
n is:
4
7 . 2
h
R
L
R
n
cr
(36)
In case of infinite long shells, from Eq. (33) ( R L ), we have:
3 2
2 3
0
0
) 1 ( 12
) 1 (
R
n Eh
q
cr


= (37)
In general, for moderate and long shells, we define
cr
n as:
4
7415 . 2
h
R
L
R
n
cr
= if 2 7 . 2
4
>
h
R
L
R

2 =
cr
n if 2 7 . 2
4

h
R
L
R
(38)

Fig 3. Relation between
R
L
and
0
cr
q (
2 11
/ 10 0 . 2 m N E = )
From Eqs. (35)- (38), with
2 11
/ 10 0 . 2 m N E = , we obtain the relationship between
0
h
R
,
R
L
,
0
cr
q . As shown in Fig. 3, the broken and continuous lines represent the relationship
between
R
L
and
0
cr
q for the case 1000
0
=
h
R
and 300
0
=
h
R
, respectively. We observe that as
R
L
increases, the thinner is the shell, the more
cr
q decreases in an agreement with the thin
shell linear theory.
We compare the buckling loads obtained from (33) for the simply supported (S-S)
shell with results of Vodenitcharova and Ansourian (1996) for the wide range of
R
L
and
0
h
R

: 3000 300 , 5 5 . 0 =
h
R
R
L
, as in Tab.1.
Table 1. Comparison of the buckling load (
2 11
/ 10 0 . 2 m N E = )
R
L


0
h
R


cr
n

0
q
(Pa)
(authors)
0
q
(Vodenitcha-
rova,Ansourian)
Error
(%)
300 15 276223 276620 0.14%
0.5
3000 28 781.48 781.6 0. %
300 11 126672 126960 0.22%
500 13 34798 34843 0.13%
1000 15 6041 6048.8 0.129%
1500 17 2174 2176.7 0.12%
2000 18 1055 1055.9 0.%
1
3000 20 380.8 381.0 0.%
300 8 60501 60733 0.38%
2
3000 14 188.2 188.4 0. %
300 7 40583 40719 0.33%
3
3000 12 124.9 125.1 0.16%
300 5 23264 23534 1.16%
5
3000 9 74.1 74.4 0.4%
For the parameter values 300
0
=
h
R
and 1000
0
=
h
R
( 3 . 0 = ), from expression (31), the
non-dimensional buckling load factors due to the thickness variation of the cylindrical shell
are given in Fig. 4. In these cases, the formulas of the buckling load factor are derived as:
300 25 5 . 0 =
h
R
R
L
: 0 . 2 1 = (39)
1000 45 5 . 0 =
h
R
R
L
: 0 . 2 1 = (40)

Fig.4. Relation between and
R
L
, ( 300
0
=
h
R
and 1000
0
=
h
R
)
The broken and continuous lines represent the relationship between and
R
L
for the case
1000
0
=
h
R
and 300
0
=
h
R
, respectively. From the obtained results it is seen that the effect of
thickness variation occurs when is positive. Even if the amplitude of the thickness
variation is as small as 0.2, the buckling load factor of cylindrical shell will be reduced about
40% from its counterpart of the cylindrical shell with constant thickness.



6. Conclusion
In this paper, the coupled linearized governing stability equations for cylindrical shell
with variable thickness are first introduced. Based on these equations, a study of the stability
of the perfect cylindrical shell with thickness varying along the x axes with sine functions is
presented. The formulas for the buckling load are derived by using the hybrid perturbation-
Galerkin method. From the obtained results, one concludes that the variable thickness can
cause reduction of the load carrying capacity of cylindrical shell structures, and therefore this
effect ought to be taken into account in the design of cylindrical shell structures.

Acknowledgement
This article was completed in part under the supports of the Vietnam Education
Foundation, when Nguyen Thi Hien Luong served as a Visiting Professor at the Florida
Atlantic University and the Natural Council of Vietnam. Isaac Elishakoff appreciates the
partial support of the J .M. Rubin Foundation.

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