Nonlinear stability of cylindrical shells subjected to axial flow : Theory and experiments

Abstract This paper, is concerned with the nonlinear dynamics and stability of thin circular cylindrical shells clamped at both ends and subjected to axial fluid flow. In particular, it describes the development of a nonlinear theoretical model and presents theoretical results displaying the nonlinear behaviour of the clamped shell subjected to flowing fluid. The theoretical model employs the Donnell nonlinear shallow shell equations to describe the geometrically nonlinear structure. The clamped beam eigenfunctions are used to describe the axial variations of the shell deformation, automatically satisfying the boundary conditions and the circumferential continuity condition exactly. The fluid is assumed to be incompressible and inviscid, and the fluid–structure interaction is described by linear potential flow theory. The partial differential equation of motion is discretized using the Galerkin method and the final set of ordinary differential equations are integrated numerically using a pseudo-arclength continuation and collocation techniques and the Gear backward differentiation formula. A theoretical model for shells with simply supported ends is presented as well. Experiments are also described for (i) elastomer shells subjected to annular (external) air-flow and (ii) aluminium and plastic shells with internal water flow. The experimental results along with the theoretical ones indicate loss of stability by divergence with a subcritical nonlinear behaviour. Finally, theory and experiments are compared, showing good qualitative and reasonable quantitative agreement.