Transmural pressure effects on the stability of clamped cylindrical shells subjected to internal fluid flow: Theory and experiments

An experimental and theoretical parametric study is undertaken to investigate the effect of transmural pressure on the non-linear dynamics and stability of circular cylindrical shells with clamped ends subjected to internal fluid flow. The theoretical structural model is based on the Donnell non-linear shallow shell theory, and potential flow theory is employed to describe the fluid–structure interaction. It is found that, for low transmural pressures in the range investigated, the shell loses stability by static subcritical divergence, while for higher transmural pressures the loss of stability is supercritical. In addition, there are ranges of flow velocity in which the shell exhibits quasi-periodic or even chaotic behaviour.