Journal of Hydraulic Structures

Journal of Hydraulic Structures

Buckling of elliptical cylindrical shell with variable circumferential thickness under fluid lateral pressure

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Davood Poorveis
Amin Khajehdezfuly
Masoud Oulapour
Hakim Tamimi
Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
10.22055/jhs.2025.50371.1361
Abstract
A review of the literature indicates that, due to the uniform curvature of circular cross-sections, the buckling load of elliptical cylindrical shells subjected to fluid lateral pressure is significantly lower than that of their circular counterparts. In many cases, fluid pressure is treated as follower pressure, meaning that the direction of the pressure exerted on an object changes in accordance with its deformation. In this study, to enhance the buckling capacity of elliptical shells, the shell thickness is varied along the circumferential direction, with greater thickness assigned to regions of lower curvature. Three thickness variation patterns (including power-law, exponential, and logarithmic) were considered in this study. A finite strip model of the shell was developed, and the buckling load was determined using the eigenvalue method. The accuracy of the developed model was validated by comparison with results obtained from finite element analysis. A comprehensive parametric study was conducted to assess the effect of geometric parameters and thickness variation patterns on the buckling of elliptical shells with circumferentially variable thickness. The results demonstrated that employing exponential, power-law, and logarithmic thickness variation can increase the buckling load by approximately 70, 60, and 20 percent, respectively. Furthermore, it was shown that for shells with a length-to-radius ratio greater than 16, the difference in buckling load under follower versus non-follower lateral pressure exceeds 30% in the most cases.
Keywords
Elliptical shell
Thickness-variable
Fluid pressure
Follower load
Buckling
Subjects
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