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Thin-Walled Cylinders
Subjected to External Pressure
Daniel Vasilikis
e-mail: davasili@uth.gr
Spyros A. Karamanos1
e-mail: skara@mie.uth.gr
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Thessaly,
Volos 38334, Greece
Motivated by practical engineering applications, the present paper examines the mechanical
response of thin-walled cylinders surrounded by a rigid or deformable medium, subjected
to uniform external pressure. Emphasis is given to structural stability in terms of buckling, postbuckling, and imperfection sensitivity. The present investigation is computational and employs a two-dimensional model, where the cylinder and the surrounding
medium are simulated with nonlinear finite elements. The behavior of cylinders made of
elastic material is examined first, and a successful comparison of the numerical results is
conducted with available closed-form analytical solutions for rigidly confined cylinders.
Subsequently, the response of confined thin-walled steel cylinders is examined. The numerical results show an unstable postbuckling response beyond the point of maximum
pressure and indicate severe imperfection sensitivity on the value of the maximum pressure. A good comparison with limited available test data is also shown. Furthermore, the
effects of the deformability of the surrounding medium are examined. In particular, soil
embedment conditions are examined, with direct reference to the case of buried thinwalled steel pipelines. Finally, based on the numerical results, a comparison is attempted
between the present buckling problem and the problem of shrink buckling. The differences between those two problems of confined cylinder buckling are pinpointed, emphasizing the issue of imperfection sensitivity. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4024165]
Introduction
Corresponding author.
Manuscript received August 21, 2012; final manuscript received March 29, 2013;
published online November 26, 2013. Editor: Harry Dankowicz.
C 2014 by ASME
Copyright V
0:8
pGL
D
0:5
t
pe
(3)
buckling pressure of cylinders embedded in a stiff (nondeformable) cavity, in terms of the material yield stress ry , the cylinder
geometry D=t, the initial out-of-roundness with amplitude d0 , and
the initial gap with maximum value g between the cylinder and
the rigid cavity:
pM
14:1ry
D=t1:5 1 1:2d0 2g=t
The above Eq. (5) has been proposed for a range of parameters,
namely 60 D=t 340, 250 MPa ry 500 MPa, 0:1 d0
=t 0:5, and g=t 0:25. Clearly, the ultimate pressure pM of
Eq. (5) is a decreasing function of both imperfection types d0 and
g, as well as a decreasing function of the diameter-to-thickness ratio D=t. Furthermore, it can be readily shown that for D=t between
100 and 300, the value of pM is well below the yield or plastic
pressure py of the cylinder, i.e., the nominal pressure that causes
full plastification of the cylinder wall. From thin-walled vessel
theory, and considering a von Mises yield criterion under plane
strain conditions for the deforming cylinder cross section, the
plastic pressure py is readily calculated equal to
t
ry
py 2 p
2
1 D
(5)
(6)
(7)
Fig. 3 Schematic representation of a confined ring with (a) gap-type initial imperfection and (b) out-of-roundness initial imperfection
residual displacement d0 , which is considered as the initial out-ofroundness amplitude, as shown in Fig. 3(b). Clearly, this type of
method may not be suitable for elastic cylinders, due to the complete recovery of shape during the unloading step. Alternatively,
this out-of-roundness imperfection can be imposed considering an
initial stress-free displacement pattern, in the form of a singlelobe at the vicinity of the h 0 location, chosen in the form of
the consecutive shapes of the perfect confined elastic cylinder
under external pressure. This method of imposing initial out-ofroundness is suitable for both elastic and elastic-plastic (steel)
cylinders.
Fig. 6 Consecutive deformation shapes of a tightly fitted elastic cylinder; configuration (2) corresponds to the ultimate pressure stage
w00 0
d p 2
R2
2R2 /
(8)
1
1
R
R
(9)
Adding the value of Eq. (9) to the initial hoop curvature (equal to
1=R), the curvature of the deformed configuration at the stage of
buckling is readily computed equal to zero. This result from
Glocks solution implies that the maximum pressure occurs at the
stage where the local curvature at the h 0 location becomes
Table 1
zero, i.e., the cylinder becomes locally flat and shows a very good
correlation with the numerical results.
Table 1 depicts the values of maximum pressure, as well as
hoop stress, inward radial displacement at the critical location,
and the size of the detachment zone at buckling stage, obtained by
both numerical analysis and Glocks analytical solution. The
value of the nominal hoop stress rnom , corresponding to the following formula:
rnom
pmax (MPa)
dcr/R
/cr (rad)
kcr
rnom (MPa)
ra/rnom
rb/rnom
(10)
Comparison between analytical results [9] and numerical results for rigidly confined elastic cylinders
D/t 100
Cylinder
pD
2t
D/t 200
D/t 300
Analytical [9]
FEM (present)
Analytical [9]
FEM (present)
Analytical [9]
FEM (present)
9.187
0.04563
0.4669
1.033
453.3
1.17
5.09
9.066
0.04598
0.4674
1.127
1.20
5.78
1.999
0.0262
0.3539
1.033
194.8
1.18
5.93
1.948
0.0255
0.3591
1.087
1.22
6.47
0.819
0.0189
0.3009
1.033
118.2
1.20
6.51
0.788
0.0211
0.2952
1.144
1.28
8.44
3.2 Imperfection Sensitivity in Elastic Cylinders. The numerical results obtained for perfect elastic cylinders indicate a
substantial drop of pressure in the equilibrium path beyond the
critical pressure point, which is a severe indication of imperfection sensitivity. In the present study, two types of initial imperfections are considered, namely initial gap between the cavity and
the outer surface of the cylinder and initial out-of-roundness in the
form of a localized inward deformation at h 0.
The numerical results of Fig. 5 may offer a first indication of
imperfection sensitivity in the presence of an initial gap between
the pressurized cylinder and the confining medium; a situation
referred to as loosely fitted cylinder. The results refer to elastic
cylinders and indicate a significant effect of the gap on the maximum pressure carried out by the elastic cylinder. In particular, a
gap size equal to only 6.7% of the cylinder thickness is responsible for a 10.9% reduction of maximum pressure with respect to
the maximum pressure that an imperfection-free cylinder can
sustain.
In the case of elastic cylinders, the initial out-of-roundness
imperfection is imposed assuming a stress-free initial configuration that follows the buckled shapes, as depicted in Fig. 6(a). Note
that the numerical results for g=R 5:4 103 (symbol n) are in
very good agreement with the empirical Eq. (4) proposed by
El-Sawy and Moore [11]. Furthermore, Fig. 7 depicts the
pressure-displacement curves of an elastic cylinder with D=t ratio
equal to 200 and demonstrates the imperfection sensitivity of the
cylinder response. The values of initial out-of-roundness amplitude (d0 =R) corresponds to the initial values of the pressuredisplacement curves on the horizontal axis of the graph. Figure
8(a) and Fig. 8(b) show the sensitivity of maximum pressure value
on the amplitude of both initial imperfections.
The above sensitivity on initial imperfections can be expressed
in terms of the so-called imperfection reduction factor a, sometimes referred to as knock-down factor, also adopted in Refs.
[32,33] for the buckling load of imperfect elastic shells so that
pmax apcr
(11)
(12)
s
d0 Kg
D
(13)
D
R
t
In Eq. (13), coefficient K expresses the relative influence of the
two forms of imperfections (gap and out-of-roundness) on the ultimate pressure pmax . From the numerical results of Fig. 8, a value
equal to 3 is obtained for this coefficient (K 3). Upon determining the value of K, a standard curve fitting technique is employed;
the values of C and m are calculated equal to 0.15 and 0.7, respectively, so that the elastic reduction factor becomes
a
0:15
0:15
"
0:7
s
#0:7
D
d0 3g
D
R
t
(14)
n
pmax
d0
1C
pcr
t
(15)
4
Fig. 9 Effects of small initial out-of-roundness imperfection
amplitudes on the buckling pressure of imperfect elastic cylinders; FEM results and predictions from the imperfection sensitivity formula of Eq. (15)
Fig. 11 Postbuckling shapes of initially perfect steel cylinders with elastic-plastic material; configuration (2) corresponds to
the ultimate pressure stage
in steel cylinders, the ultimate pressure capacity pmax of steel cylinders occurs at a lower level of pressure because of the significant effect of inelastic material behavior on the pressure capacity
of the cylinder. Furthermore, the finite element results indicate
that the maximum pressure of elastic-plastic (steel) cylinders
occurs very soon after first yielding, and corresponds to a deformation stage before flattening of the cylinder wall occurs at the
h 0 location. Figure 11(a) depicts the successive deformed configurations of the steel cylinder. A comparison between deformed
shapes from elastic and inelastic cylinder behavior in Fig. 6(a)
and Fig. 11(a) shows that the postbuckling shape of inelastic cylinders is characterized by more abrupt changes of local curvature
at the symmetry point A and the touchdown points B and B0
(Fig. 1), and this is attributed to the concentration of plastic deformation at those points and the formation of plastic hinges. In addition, the buckled portion of the cylinder extends to a shorter
circumferential area than in the case of elastic cylinders.
Upon reaching the maximum pressure pmax , the cylinder behavior becomes unstable, with significant drop of pressure capacity,
and this is responsible for a severe sensitivity of the pmax value on
the presence of initial imperfections. The numerical results in
Fig. 10 for the cylinder under consideration show that initial outof-roundness of amplitude less than 1% of the cylinder radius
result in a 60% reduction of the ultimate pressure pmax with respect
to the maximum pressure of the imperfection-free cylinder. The
unstable postbuckling behavior is due to the development of a
plastic collapse mechanism with one stationary plastic hinge at
symmetry point A and two moving hinges at the two touchdown
points B and B. Using a simple kinematic model [30], the following closed-form expression describing this mechanism has been
obtained:
t
p
4
2
py
D
d
d
6
R
R
(16)
which verifies the unstable behavior beyond the maximum pressure, leading to plastic collapse of the pressurized cylinder. A
more detailed discussion on the plastic collapse mechanism is
offered in Ref. [28].
The presence of a small gap between the cylinder and the confinement medium may also have significant effect on the maximum pressure, as shown in Fig. 12. The cylinder has a D=t ratio
equal to 200 and a steel material with yield stress ry equal to 313
MPa. The gap size, denoted as g, is the maximum distance
between the cylinder and the cavity inner surface at h 0, and it
is normalized by the cylinder radius R. The numerical results in
Fig. 12, compared with the corresponding results of Fig. 10, indicate that in the presence of a rather small gap size equal to 0.27%
of the cylinder radius R (or equivalently equal to 27% of the cylinder thickness) and for zero initial out-of-roundness (d0 =R 0),
the ultimate pressure capacity is reduced by 40%. The maximum
pressure is further decreased in the presence of initial out-ofroundness imperfections (d0 =R). The effects of initial gap (g=R)
and out-of-roundness (d0 =R) imperfections on the maximum pressure (pmax =py ) are summarized in Fig. 13 for a cylinder with
D=t 200 and ry 313 MPa. The finite element results indicate
that for values of initial out-of-roundness d0 greater than 3.5% of
the cylinder radius R, the value of maximum pressure pmax is independent of the value of the initial gap size g.
One should note that the overall behavior of the pressurized
steel cylinder is similar to the one described in the Sec. 3 for elastic cylinders. The cylinder is initially contracted due to external
pressure and buckles in an oval form at p=py 0.016, which
corresponds to the critical buckling pressure pe for elastic unconfined cylinders, calculated from Eq. (2). Nevertheless, the cylinder
accommodates itself within the rigid cavity, allowing for significant further increase of external pressure, and behaving similar to
an arch under external pressure that leads to inversion buckling
010801-8 / Vol. 66, JANUARY 2014
(18)
k
t
E
pGL
In the case of perfect elastic cylinders (g d0 0), the numerical results in Fig. 4 show that the ultimate pressure pmax is equal
to the one predicted by Eq. (1), i.e., equal to pGL . Therefore, combining Eqs. (1) and (18), one can write
pmax
1
2
py
k
(19)
(20)
(22)
a
k2p
(23)
g 0:3
(24)
Test #2
Test #3
Test #4
D/t ratio
66.7
66.7
133.3
142.8
0.009
0.009
0.005
0.007
Out-of-roundness (d0 =R)
Initial gap (g=R)
0.0002
0.0002
0.00067
0.00067
304
451
746
Yield strength (ry ) (MPa) 304
Table 3 Comparison of critical pressure between experimental, numerical, and analytical results
Maximum pressure
Experimental
Numerical (FEM)
Design methodology
Montel Eq. (5)
Test #1
Test #2
Test #3
Test #4
6.1 MPa
6.14 MPa
5.47 MPa
5.74 MPa
6.7 MPa
6.14 MPa
5.47 MPa
5.74 MPa
2.9 MPa
2.84 MPa
2.70 MPa
2.75 MPa
2.6 MPa
2.88 MPa
2.57 MPa
2.42 MPa
Figure 20 shows the drop of the pmax value with decreasing values of E0 for an elastic cylinder and a steel cylinder with
D=t 200. It is interesting to note that for E0 =E 3 104 , the
two curves coincide, indicating that buckling of steel cylinders
with D=t 200 in a highly deformable medium occurs in the elastic range. In other words, the effects of confinement are significantly reduced. The effect of E0 =E in the present design
methodology can be taken into account introducing an appropriate
reduction factor f [31] expressing the ratio of the maximum pressure pmax in a deformable medium over pmax;1 , which is the maximum pressure of the cylinder in a rigid confinement (E0 ! 1):
f
pmax
pmax;1
(25)
Numerical results in Ref. [31] have shown that this factor is independent on the value of the D=t ratio. Based on the numerical
results, the following function is defined:
f x
Fig. 19 Effects of initial out-of-roundness and stiffness of confinement medium (E 0 /E) on the maximum pressure sustained
by a confined steel cylinder (g/R 5 0, D/t 5 200)
(26)
(27)
which can be used for an efficient description of the effects of medium deformability on the ultimate pressure.
The previous results have been obtained without considering
gravity of the surrounding medium. In the following, the effects
of gravity on the structural response of the cylinder are examined.
Motivated by the case of buried pipelines, soil conditions are considered for the surrounding medium. Figures 21(a) and 21(b)
show the pressure-displacements response of a steel cylinder with
D=t 200, embedded in an elastic medium of density equal to 20
kN/m3 and Youngs modulus ranging from 25 to 100 MPa, which
is typical for clays [37]. In this analysis, gravity of the cylinder/
soil system is considered as a first step, and subsequently, external
pressure has been applied on the outer surface of the cylinder. The
results in Fig. 21(a) refer to 0:3 and indicate a high value of
pmax at small values of E0 . This observation is more pronounced in
Fig. 21(b), which refers to 0:49, a nearly incompressible medium. This can be explained if the detachment w of the cylinder
from the surrounding medium replaces the displacement d of the
cylinder in the horizontal axis. The corresponding graphs are
shown in Figs. 22(a) and 22(b) for low values of E0 . Due to gravity loading, the cylinder remains in contact with the medium up to
a significant level of pressure and buckling is prevented. Immediately after detachment, buckling occurs quite abruptly, associated
with a rapid drop of pressure. This sudden collapse is more pronounced in the case of a nearly incompressible medium
JANUARY 2014, Vol. 66 / 010801-11
Fig. 21 Structural response of perfect steel cylinders for different values of confinement medium modulus; pressure versus
displacement (d) equilibrium paths for (a) m 5 0.3 and (b) m 5 0.49
Fig. 22 Structural response of perfect steel cylinders for different values of confinement medium modulus; pressure versus
detachment (w ) equilibrium paths for (a) m 5 0.3 and (b) m 5 0.49
Conclusions
(A1)
The membrane and bending strain are given in terms of the radial
and tangential displacements v and w of the ring reference line at
midthickness as follows:
em
1 0
1
v w 2 w02
R
R
w00
k 2
R
(A2)
(A3)
ph
2/
(A4)
where / is the angle that defines the border between the buckled
and the unbuckled ring portions so that / h /. Minimization of the total potential energy P with respect to both d and
/ results in closed-form expressions for the pressure p, the amplitude of buckled shape d, and the axial force N in terms of angle /:
010801-14 / Vol. 66, JANUARY 2014
2
d
6pR3 / 4
/
10
R
p
p
EI
2
3
s
5
pR3
p 24 1
80
EI
p 5
16
16
/
6
3 EAR2
/
EI
N
5 EI p 2
3 R2 /
(A5)
(A6)
(A7)
(A8)
(A9)
(A10)
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