Critical state of an axially compressed cylindrical panel with three edges simply supported and one edge free

The subject of the paper is a circular cylindrical panel with three edges simply supported and one edge free. The structure is axially compressed by a load uniformly distributed at both ends. The system of stability equations of shallow cylindrical shell was solved, assuming the deflection function and the force function—the Airy function which were formulated with respect to the boundary conditions. The system of stability equations was reduced to one regular differential equation of eighth degree. The results of numerical investigations (FEM) and buckling models are presented in the figures. The results of analytical and numerical investigation are compared in the paper.