Buckling of Cylindrical Shells by Wind Pressure

An analytical method is developed to solve approximately the bifurcation buckling load of a circular cylindrical shell under nonaxisymmetrical lateral pressure. The assumption of semi-inextensible deformation is made, which sets the circumferential strain to zero and simplifies the system of equations as well as the boundary conditions. In order to investigate the accuracy of the new method, solutions are first obtained for a cylindrical shell under uniform lateral pressure with either simple-simple or clamped-free boundary conditions. Comparisons are made in the former case to Flugge’s theory and, in the latter case, to a finite element analysis. Agreement in both cases is very good. The theory is then applied to find the buckling load of a clamped-free cylindrical shell under nonaxisymmetrical lateral pressure created by wind. Disagreement with a previous theory by Langhaar and Miller is examined. Comparisons with results of some experiments are also made and possible reasons of the discrepancies are considered.