The effect of geometric imperfections on the buckling behaviour of composite laminated cylinders under external hydrostatic pressure

Using a new FE modelling procedure for the accurate representation of a geometrically imperfect cylinder, the present study investigates the effect of the initial imperfection magnitude on the cylinder buckling load, when it is loaded by external hydrostatic pressure. The buckling behaviour of a carbon/epoxy filament wound cylinder is initially studied and the modelling procedure is validated through a comparison between calculated and experimental results. Various FE models are developed and evaluated, with increasing degree of complexity. The method is then applied to a cylinder with different end supports, to assess how the boundary conditions together with the imperfections affect the buckling behaviour. Finally, the effect of imperfection magnitude is investigated, leading to the calculation of knockdown factors as low as 0.6.