Elastic buckling of an axially compressed sandwich cylindrical panel with three edges simply supported and one edge free

The problem of elastic buckling of an open sandwich cylindrical thin-walled panel with three edges simply supported and one edge free under axial compression is considered in the paper. The classical broken line hypothesis is replaced by its modified generalized version. On the basis of force and moment equilibrium conditions for the shell element, a set of the fundamental equations is derived. The set is solved with the help of the orthogonalizational Bubnov–Galerkin method. The nonlinear algebraic equation is obtained. Physical and geometrical parameters of the shell, deflection factor and loading are connected in the equation. It is possible, among others, to obtain from here the critical load value.