Buckling of the composite sandwich cylindrical shell with clamped ends under uniform external pressure

An approximate analytical solution of the buckling problem formulated for a composite sandwich cylindrical shell subjected to a uniform external lateral pressure is presented in the paper. Both ends of the shell of finite length are fully clamped. The problem is solved using the Galerkin method. The analytical formula for the critical load has been obtained and verified by comparison with a finite-element solution. Based on this formula buckling analyses of sandwich pipes with different types of core materials normally used in underwater applications have been performed. Applications of the formula to the solutions of design problems have been demonstrated for the clamped–clamped sandwich pipes considering constraints imposed on the value of critical pressure.