Experimental study on damaged cylindrical shells under compression

Sensitivity to initial imperfections under compressive loading has been extensively studied in shell structures. However, due to the existence of a wide range of imperfections with various shapes and amplitudes, the real behavior of such structures needs to be further investigated when they face with a damaged area. This study presents an experimental program in which buckling and failure response of damaged shell specimens are analyzed. The results of this study can be generalized for many kinds of cylindrical shells to full scale of applications with similar D/t ratios.