Postbuckling analysis of elastic shells of revolution considering mode switching and interaction

The postbuckling response of shells is known to exhibit complex phenomena including mode switching and interaction, particularly in the advanced postbuckling range. The existing literature contains many initial postbuckling analyses as well as advanced postbuckling analyses for a single buckling mode, but little work is available on the advanced postbuckling analysis of shells of revolution considering mode switching and interaction. In this paper, a numerical method for the advanced postbuckling analysis of thin shells of revolution subject to torsionless axisymmetric loads is presented, in which such mode switching and interaction are properly captured. Numerical results obtained using the present method for several typical problems not only demonstrate the capability of the method, but also lead to significant observations concerning the postbuckling behavior of thin shells of revolution. In particular, the results show that strong interaction between different harmonic modes may exist and the transition of deformation mode from one to another is gradual. Consequently, the conventional approach of finding the postbuckling path of a shell as the lower festoon curve of postbuckling paths of individual harmonic modes is not valid and is at best a convenient approximation.