Dynamic elastic–plastic buckling of circular cylindrical shells under axial impact

Dynamic axisymmetric buckling of circular cylindrical shells struck axially by a mass is studied in order to clarify the initiation of buckling and to provide some insight into the buckling mechanism as a transient process. It is assumed that the material is elastic–plastic with linear strain hardening and displaying the Bauschinger effect. The deformation process is analysed by a numerical simulation using a discrete model. Particular attention is paid to the influence of stress wave propagation on the initiation of buckling. It is found that the development of the buckling shape depends strongly on the inertia properties of the striker and on the geometry of the shell. The theoretical method is used to clarify some experimental data and good agreement is obtained with results on aluminium alloy tubes.