Experimental study on damaged cylindrical shells under compression

• Diamond tier(s) were dependent on the proximity of the dent to the cylinder ends.
• The dented area was largely affected by the deformations in the post-buckling phase.
• SCC specimens were more sensitive to the initial dent than LCC specimens.
• A second bifurcation point is attributed to the development of large deformations.
• Comparisons must be drawn with care to generalize the behaviors for design purposes.

Sensitivity to initial imperfections under compressive loading has been extensively studied in shell structures. However, due to the existence of a wide range of imperfections with various shapes and amplitudes, the real behavior of such structures needs to be further investigated when they face with a damaged area. This study presents an experimental program in which buckling and failure response of damaged shell specimens are analyzed. The results of this study can be generalized for many kinds of cylindrical shells to full scale of applications with similar D/t ratios.