Dynamic Buckling of Elastic Cylindrical Shells under Axial Step Load

Considering the effect of stress wave, the dynamic buckling of circular cylindrical shells under an axial step load is discussed using the classical shell theories and the state-space technique in the paper. Based on the Hamilton’s principle, the dynamic buckling governing equations of shells are derived and solved with the Rayleigh-Ritz method. If the linear homogeneous equations have a non-trivial solution, the determinant of the coefficient matrix must be equal to zero, so the expression of the critical load on the dynamic buckling is got. The relationship between the critical load and length is obtained by using MATLAB software. The influences of boundary conditions, thickness, the number of circumferential waves and the number of axial waves on the dynamic buckling loads are discussed based on numerical computation.