Buckling of Corrugated Open Cylindrical Shells

The purpose of this study is to determine the critical buckling stress of open cylindrical shells with sinusoidal corrugations with free longitudinal edges subjected to uniform compression in the direction of the corrugations. Practical considerations lead to the decision of limiting the length (L) to radius (R) ratio to 1 to 10, radius (r) to thickness (t) ratio of 2,500 to 15,000, and thickness (t) to amplitude of corrugation (f) ratio of 0.04 to 0.36. The last ratio has a dominant effect on the buckling stress in the range of L²/Rt < 10⁵. The buckling stress is found to be less sensitive to the magnitude of the half subtended angle (30° to 90°) and insensitive to other shell parameters such as curved to chord length ratio, the reduction factor of shear rigidity and the Poisson's ratio. The results are given in figures in log-log plotting with buckling coefficient as ordinate and geometry property parameter as abscissa. This may be of use to the designers.