Applicability of the Vibration Correlation Technique for Estimation of the Buckling Load in Axial Compression of Cylindrical Isotropic Shells with and without Circular Cutouts.

Applicability of the vibration correlation technique (VCT) for nondestructive evaluation of the axial buckling load is considered. Thin-walled cylindrical shells with and without circular cutouts have been produced by adhesive overlap bonding from a sheet of aluminium alloy. Both mid-surface and bond-line imperfections of initial shell geometry have been characterized by a laser scanner. Vibration response of shells under axial compression has been monitored to experimentally determine the variation of the first eigenfrequency as a function of applied load. It is demonstrated that VCT provides reliable estimate of buckling load when structure has been loaded up to at least 60% of the critical load. This applies to uncut structures where global failure mode is governing collapse of the structure. By contrast, a local buckling in the vicinity of a cutout could not be predicted by VCT means. Nevertheless, it has been demonstrated that certain reinforcement around cutout may enable the global failure mode and corresponding reliability of VCT estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]