Buckling of imperfect sandwich cylinders under axial compression

An analytical study has been carried out to determine the effect of axisymmetric shape imperfections on the compressive buckling strength of sandwich cylinders having isotropic facings and orthotropic, shear deformable cores. Buckling solutions are presented as a function of imperfection amplitude, wavelength and the core shear flexibility coefficients. Non-shear deformable cores have also been considered and results compared to isotropic cylinders based on an “equivalent” thickness parameter.