Postbuckling Equilibrium of Axially Compressed Circular Cylindrical Shells

Earlier numerical solutions of the von Karman-Donnell large-displacement equations for thin circular cylindrical shells have been extended by considering larger numbers of terms in the double Fourier series representing the radial displacements after buckling. In the most comprehensive one of the calculations whose results are presented here a total potential energy expression consisting of about 1100 terms was minimized with respect to 16 unknowns. The results of the computations as well as theoretical considerations indicate that the solution for long shells of the von Karman-Donnell equations with the aid of the von Karman-Tsien Leggett procedure leads in the limit to the trivial solution in which the amplitude of the displacements tends to zero, the number of waves around the circumference tends to infinity and the average axial compressive stress capable of maintaining equilibrium in the post-buckling state tends to zero. (Author).