Stability of long transversely-isotropic elastic cylindrical shells under bending

The present paper investigates buckling of cylindrical shells of transversely-isotropic elastic material subjected to bending, considering the nonlinear prebuckling ovalized configuration. A large-strain hypoelastic model is developed to simulate the anisotropic material behavior. The model is incorporated in a finite-element formulation that uses a special-purpose “tube element”. For comparison purposes, a hyperelastic model is also employed. Using an eigenvalue analysis, bifurcation on the prebuckling ovalization path to a uniform wrinkling state is detected. Subsequently, the postbuckling equilibrium path is traced through a continuation arc-length algorithm. The effects of anisotropy on the bifurcation moment, the corresponding curvature and the critical wavelength are examined, for a wide range of radius-to-thickness ratio values. The calculated values of bifurcation moment and curvature are also compared with analytical predictions, based on a heuristic argument. Finally, numerical results for the imperfection sensitivity of bent cylinders are obtained, which show good comparison with previously reported asymptotic expressions.