Theoretical analyses of thermal post-buckling problems of liner shells Original Research Article

The buckling of liner shells is a major problem in reactor containment design. In this paper, the local liner shell is considered as the liner plate with special initial imperfection form, based on which, Koiterʹs asymptotic theory of initial post-buckling is used to obtain expressions for the post-buckling equilibrium paths and post-buckling minimum loads for perfect and imperfect liner shells. The post-buckling behaviors of three liner shell models (four point-supported liner shell, clamped liner shell, and five-point-supported liner shell) are investigated. The influence of the initial imperfection stud spacing and liner thickness on the post-buckling minimum loads is also given.