Rapid identification of pre-buckling states: A case of cylindrical shell

The problem to identify pre-buckling states for thin-walled shell corresponds to the problem to identify pre-bifurcation solutions (the inverse bifurcation problem) for von Karman equations that govern the structure. Typical solution sequences similar to those of post-bifurcation solutions observed along the bifurcation paths of the nonlinear boundary problem for von Karman equations are extracted to serve as precursors of bifurcation (tools to solve the problem). The method allows one to divide all operations required to solve the problem under study into two non-equal parts. The most time-consuming part (to trace bifurcation paths and cluster the respective solution) is performed off-line, while the part of the algorithm that is carried out on-line (the identification algorithm) requires a relatively small number of arithmetic operations. This allows development of the efficient system of rapid identification of pre-buckling states.