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STABILITY ANALYSIS OF RING STIFFENED SHELLS OF REVOLUTION

J. SUBBIAH R. NATARAJAN and
Department of Applied Mechanics, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, Hauz Khas. New Delhi-l 10029, India

(Received 17 December 1979;received for publication 3 July 1980)

Abstract-A finite element formulation is presented for the general instability of ring stiffened shells of revolution subjected to external pressure. Linear bifurcation buckling theory is used. A rigorous derivation for the potential due to the hydrostatic loading including follower force effect is presented. Comparison with results obtained by earlier research workers in this field is given. Substantial reduction in buckling pressures due to followerforce effect is reported.

UVTROWCT~ON

Stiffened plating formed into shells of revolution is a common structure, especially in submarines. Considerable effort has been expended in developing theories for the behaviour of such structures under various conditions of loading. Several papers have been published for predicting elastic collapse of uniform cylinder under external pressure. For practical values of thickness to diameter ratio the desired collapse pressure can only be obtained by reducing the unsupported length of the cylinder by means of transverse (ring) stiffening. Compared to unstiffened cylinders, the amount of literature available on buckling of stiffened cylinders is sparse. Some pioneering work in this field was done by Kendrick[l] in the early 1950s and his work was pub lished in a condensed form in 1%5[2]. Kendrick obtained collapse pressures by minimising the total potential energy for an assumed displacement field. RossI published his results also in 1965, but his work was based on Kendricks with only minor modifications to the assumed displacement functions. The analysis presented in this paper is based on general theory of linear bifurcation buckling. Other salient features of this paper are: I. The hydrostatic pressure which a submarine pressure hull is subjected to is of the follower-force type whereas papers published so far have not taken the follower force effects into consideration. In the case of loads with follower force effects, while the intensity of the pressure remains constant, the total magnitude of the load and the orientation undergo continuous variation as the cylinder deforms. In this paper, the authors have presented a rigorous derivation for the potential due to loads with follower force effect and the authors have also established that there is a substantial reduction in buckling pressures due to such effect. 2. The analysis uses complete theory of shells (extensional and bending) in the prebuckling equilibrium state. 3. Several boundary conditions have been tested to examine the effect of boundary conditions on the eigenvalue.
GENERAL TEEORY Op BIFURCATION BUCKLING OF BHBLLS

derived the geometric stiffness matrix for beam columns and later extended the theory to analyse instability of shells using plate elements(51 Navaratna et a1.[6] and Marcal and Mallet[7-91 established systematic procedures to derive geometric stiffness matrices. In the present paper we will deal only with linear buckling analysis wherein all behaviour is assumed to be linear prior to buckling. We will also ignore the effect of initial displacements. The stability of the fundamental prebuckled state is characterised by the existence of the positive second variation of the total potential energy. At the critical point, however, there exist non-zero virtual displacements for which the second variation of the total potential energy vanishes.
FORMULMION OF TEE PROBLEM

Strain-energy

of the shell

Using the classical thin-shell approximation, the strain energy of a shell of revolution is expressed in terms of the mid surface strains and curvature changes due to mid surface displacements. In this paper, the strain-displacement relations used are those derived by Sanders [ 101. Let the displacement field in the prebuckling state be denoted as II(), which produces strain tensor r$ and strain energy II. The stability of the prebuckling state is investigated by perturbing it by a displacement field II(~), satisfying the kinematic boundary conditions. The perturbation displacement field produces a strain tensor a$ which contains both linear and non-linear terms. The total strain energy in the perturbed state can be written as u = u(e) + U + UZ+ o((J) where f,P) =; [C{(&)Z t (cgy t 2&V:)&,) (1)

II

t 2(1 - u)(rSd)] a(k:)* +

t(k~)*t2Vk(l:&(~t2(1-Y) (k$)}]r de

Considerable literature exists in the area of buckling analysis based on traditional procedures leading to Euler buckling loads using Finite Element Methods. One of the earliest papers was published by Gallagher[4] who
497

ds

(2)

498

J. SUBBIAHand NATARAJAN R.

The position vector R of the deformed shell can be expressed in terms of the intrinsic coordinates II, to, ts as R=(rtw,u,stu) dji=(R,OhR,s)deds du = (dw, dv, du). (3) 1 (1) (1) U(Z)=[C{(E5:))*+(~~~)*+2vE,,~ee 2 II t 2(1- v)(&)*} t D{(kS,)* t (k',',')' t 2vkc,,k,,t 2(1- v)(kS?)*} t fC{c',j!(&' t 6% t v&) (&it
I&))

(10) (11) (12)

Potential due to follower forces = -External work done = If A

u

p{(R, 8 AR, s) *(dw, du, du)} de ds.

(13)

t 2(1- v)Q$?&}] r d0 ds

(4)

We can integrate this, assuming deformations u, u, w to take place continuously and uniformly, to get 52= Q(O) @+ +
f)(2)

(14)

0(UC3) Higher order terms. STRAIN ENERGYOFTHESTIFFENJW The strain energy of the stiffeners in the perturbed state can be expressed in a similar manner, in terms of the extensional and curvature strains of the midsurface of the shell and the distance between the midsurface of the shell and the centroid of the stiffeners. Thus, for the stiffeners where
R(O) = f A

prw de ds

(15)

w+ IA(w2t
P=~p 6

WU,e t rwfd, t

D2
(16)

UW,&e ,s-wu.su.e .B + f -U&W,@

uw,e ruw,,) de ds
(w2u t wu u .., t u2u,,t UU*,W,@ - uvv,, - uw*sv,e uww,) de ds. (17) u = u(=)+ up

We can now substitute the displacement field

to get the required equations for the linear bifurcation buckling. Incidentally, Q(*)is not made use of in the linear bifurcation buckling analysis. It can be used in the nonPOTENTIALDUETOClRCUMFERENTULPRFSSURELOAD linear large deformation analysis of problems. n(i), when WITHFOLLOWER-FORCEEFFECT the displacement field is substituted yields two parts When the load is of the follower-force-type, it leads to fl) = a\) + f&l, second order energy increments during perturbation and (18) contributes to the geometric stiffness matrix[lb161. For conservative loads, without follower force effect, of which CI(1l) contributes to the linear stiffness matrix we can write the potential as and fl$ contributes to the geometric stiffness matrix. I-I=P.udA. IA (8)
GOVERNINGEQUATIONS

Applying principle of virtual work But for follower forces, since P changes in direction and magnitude as the shell deforms, eqn (8) is written in a modified form as
Q=-

S( U t n) = 0. Retaining terms only upto second order, we get

(19)

p di.du.

S( U t w

t U t np t U t i-p) = 0. (20)

dA is obtained by considering the geometry of the shell after deformation. The derivation presented in this paper is restricted to shells of zero-meridional curvature. The derivation could, however, be easily extended to general shells of revolution.

The variation is applied only to the perturbation displacement field and the prebuckling displacement field is held constant during the variation. Therefore, s( u(e)+ n(e)) = 0 (21)

Stability analysis of ring stiffened shells of revolution

499

Since p state is also an equilibrium state #I)( u+ 0:)) = 0. (22)

where

In any case, for shells of revolution, U and fP) are identically equal to zero since the perturbation displacement field is periodic in 0. We, therefore, get from eqns (19)-(22). S( u(2)+ ai) = 0, (23)

STRAlN-DISPLACEMENTRELAl'IONS

Using the straindisplacement Sanders [ 101,we can write

relations derived by

{c}= [S]{d} 14) = Wlt4 where {r} = Linear part of strain tensor {d} = Rotation tensor {d}= Dis~la~nt a.
CENERALlsEn

(26)

(27)

This mathematical expression implies that the second variation of the total potential energy of the system while moving from e state to p state is zero. When this criterion is satisfied, there is no longer a unique solution indicating a bifurcation point in the load deflection plot.
FORMULATIONOF THE Dl!3CRETISED SYSIFM The shell is discretised into a number of axisymmetric elements. Two types of element interpolation functions were tested for the torsionless axisymmetric loading they are: 1. Three degrees of freedom in the e state (u, w, /3) and four degrees of freedom per node in the p state (u, 0, r&B). 2. Four degrees of freedom per node in e state (u, au/as, ,!3) six degrees of freedom per node in w, and p state (u, au/as, adas,w,@). U, Numerical results indicate that there is no appreciable gain in going for a higher order element. In fact, the storage and computation time are approximately doubled when higher order elements are used while the improvement in accuracy is less than 0.5% for the same discretisation. For convenience all subsequent expressions given in this paper refer to the lower order element. The displacement field within each element is represented by Fig. 1.

functions

and their derivatives =

-IN

RELATIONSlOP

This is obtained from the strain energy functional. The expressions for UC2 shell and stiffeners (4) and (7) for can be split into two parts.
U'2' v':>+Vi" = (28)

where Vi contains terms c$ only and V$ contains (2) terms E$ and c,~. When the first variation of Vi is taken it gives the traditional linear stiffness matrix and VP yields the geometric stiffness matrix. We can write (29)

u = (aI + (INS) jlI cos u = (ax t aas) sin j0 w = (a5 t &s + als2 t ass) cos j6 1 (24)

where_[R] defines the linear stress-strain relationship and [NJ defines the corresponding relationship for the geometric stiffness.
ELEMENT -

MM'RIcES

when j =0, the above expression give the torsionless prebuckling displacement field. The eight constants (or, a2,. . . , as) are related to the nodal displacement degrees of freedom {S}as Ia) = V-8 IPJ

v~2=~ff[~l[~]{~}~dBds =; where

161 [m3

(31)

(2%

and similarly

=; where

181 [GIISI

(33)

Fig. 1. Element geometry with displacement degrees of freedom.

IGl=~~~~.,lW~R1~~,l~Rl~~l~~~~l~d~d~

(34)

500

J. SUBBIAH R. NATARUAN and Computation time is also reduced substantially. For example, the problem with 30 elements takes only I Mill (CPU Time) for e state solution and I Mill per iteration in p state when eigen value is obtained in an ICL 1902 computer.

Expressions for [K] and [G] are not calculated explicitly, but are computed using numerical integration procedures. Assembly of element stiffness matrices are done using standard procedures.

NUMERICAL. EXAMPLES Examples of unstiffened cylinder subjected to end load To validate the formulation of the problem and the computer program, two problems, the first one with uniform thickness (Fig. 2) and the second with linearly varying thickness (Fig. 3), have been solved and the results obtained by the authors are given in Tables I and R = pa12[GJ{F} (36) 2. These problems had been earlier solved by both Navaratna[6] and Rao et af.[ll]. The results obtained where t = thickness of shell; (I = radius of the shell; by them, however, did not agree. I = length of the shell; and p = external pressure. From the results given in Tables I and 2, it is evident that the results obtained by Rao are correct, but it is not All elements in [K], {F} and {S}are nondimensional. because of the use of higher order element as claimed by Rao. The authors feel that the differences in results could Equilibrium solution When element equations are assembled, we get the be due to serious errors either in the formulation of the problem or in the computation by Navaratna. system equations in the form The authors would further like to add that the use of the higher order element as suggested by Rao doubles the core requirement and the computation time, with only marginal differences in eigen value. The authors had, therefore, decided to use the lower order element solving, we get for all subsequent problems, since the lower order element produces equally accurate results while being more economical on both core requirement and computational effort. Thus, we get the equilibrium solution of {S} in the CYLINDERS SUBJECTED lJhtFoRM TO nondimensional form in terms of (p(l - v*)/E) i/t. We EXAMPLES OF STIFFBNBD EXTERNAL IIyDROSlATIC PRRSURR can now get the strains in the equilibrium conditions E$ Table 3 gives the buckling pressures for six different in terms of @(l - v*)/E) Ut by operating on {S}. lengths of cylinders (Fig. 4) for three different cases. After the solution for the pre-buckling state is obtained, the eigen value equation for the perturbed condition is generated. Here, the geometric stiffness matrix [G] contains terms B$ which are functions of _..L-_ (p(l - v*)/E) I/t. We can, therefore, write the eigen value P equation as

For convenience of computation all quantities are expressed in non-dimensionalised form. For example, U and 0 are expressed as

(39) where the terms in [G] are contributed by both Vi* and fZ$, i.e .
P

-_ -._.__

WI + Wll{~I = 0
where A = Eigen value = 9:.

WI
Fig. 2. A cylindrical shell of uniform thickness longitudinal compression.
-.. P L .-__-. P

subjected

to

HUMERICAL PROIXDURR Since the system matrices are symmetric and quasitridiagonal, only the non-zero elements above the leading diagonal are stored in a one dimensional array. This leads to considerable saving in storage space and computation time. For example, a problem having 30 elements (31 nodes) and having 4 degrees of freedom per node in p state will have a stiffness matrix of dimension (124~ 124). But the total core storage required for the relevant non-zero elements is 0nIy 790.

-P I

Fig. 3. A cylindrical shell of variable thickness subjected longitudinal compression.

to

Stabilityanalysis of ring stiffenedsbells of revolution Table 1.

I = 7.0 Q=&: a = 4.0
1=

Sol

o.lxl5 A=%

Y= 0.3

Element Particulars a 1.20elements,lower order 2. 20 elements,higherorder 3. 30 elements,lowerorder

A b
C

0.5031(l) 0.5037(2) 0.5004(l) 0.5&4(l) 0.5097(1) -

Tbe number in brackets indites tbe harmonic number for the lowest bucklingload. (a)-present study (b)--Ref. (lo), Navaratnaet al. (c)-Ref. (11) Rao et al. Table 2. I= 1.6 a=l.O 11 0.005 = A a
I. 20 elements,lowerorder 2. 20 elements,bigberorder 3. 30 elements,lowerorder

12 0.015 =

ElementParticulars

b 0.55 lO(2) -

0.16cql) 0.15%(l) 0.1599(l)

0.1596(l) -

1. The numbersin bracketsindicatesthe harmonicnumberfor the lowest bucklingload. (a&present study (b)-Ref. (lo), Navaratna et al. (c)-Ref. (1l), Rao d aL Table 3. CaXl l/a 1.5 ?! 6.0 7.5 12.0 A,XW 6.936 16.040 12.112 18.718 20.853 26.423 Case 2 A*XlD 7.339 18.568 13.443 22.468 25.932 34.202 A-P(t-) AJA, 1.058 1.158 1.110 1.200 1.244 1.294
E t

Case 3 A,xlO 6.591 15.829 12.048 18.134 19.571 24.214 AJA, 0.950 0.987 0.995 0.%9 0.939 0.916

100units r = I unit A, = 4.9152(unit)2 f = 6.2633units 1, = 30.3457 (unit)

a =

Stiffener spacing = 30 units.

For all problems: 1. Thirty elements were used with graded mesh size in half length. 2. 0.1% tolerance was used for individualcomponents of mode shape. 3. Relaxed boundary conditions of u = 0 and w = 0 were used. Figure 5 gives the mode shape (displacement, w) for a typical cylinder of l/a = 3.0. The trend of the bucklingpressures as a function of l/a is similarto the one obtainedby Kendrick.However, pressures are very much lower for shorter cylinders and slightly higher for longer ones as compared to those obtained by Kendrick. Incidentally, relaxed boundary conditions used in the analysis generally lead to lower buckling values as compared to conditions imposing more restraints[ 121. The buckling pressures for all the cylinders are the lowest for j= 2 (except for I/a = 1.5 with external stiffeners, for which j= 3). Kendricks analysis, however, gives j= 2 for long cylinders and higher harmonic for short cylinders.

Case 1: (A,) Loading with follower force effects, cylinder with internal &Tenors. Case 2: (Aa) Loading without follower force effects, cylinder with

external stiffeners.
Case 3: (As) Loading with follower force effects, cylinder with

external stiffeners. The details of the cylinders and stiffenersare the same as those considered by Kendrick[2](Fig. 4)

J. SUIBIAH and R. NATALUAN

drick. It is also observed from Fig. 5 that the inter frame instability is confined to extreme frame spaces only.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

_._.__~in,_-_

_~_
1 !

0 321n

064m

Mean radius 100 m

suggested in this paper provides a good basis for predicting elastic instability pressures for stiffened shells of revolution. Available results indicate that there is no need to treat general instability and interframe instability separately as is traditionally done. Finite element method can treat both modes of failure at the same time. Finally, buckling pressures of thin shell structures are very sensitive to initial imperfections and this is one of the major reasons for the poor correlation between theoretically predicted and experimentally obtained buckling loads. The only way to overcome this discrepancy is to analyse the shell as a non-linear large deformation problem with initial imperfection.
NOMENCLATURE

The

method

Fig. 4. Stiffened cylinder subjected to end compression and

hydrostatic pressure.

When the loading is considered as a follower force, the buckling pressures obtained are lower by approximately 6% for the shorter cylinders and as much as 30% for the longer cylinders as compared to the buckling pressures when considered as conservative. When the stiffeners are external to the cylinders, the buckling pressures are lower compared to those for cylinders with internal stiffeners. As I/a increases, the ratio of pressures between cylinders with internal and external stiffener also increases. For I/a = 12.0 cylinders with internal stiffeners give 10% higher buckling pressure. These results are in excellent agreement with those reported by Semenyuk(l3]. Figure 5 shows that the mode shape generally corresponds to the third type suggested by Kendrick (Fig. 2C of Ref. [2]) over most of the length of the cylinder. However, the normal displacement in the last frame space is quite different to the general pattern in the remaining frame spaces. In fact, the mode shape is very similar to inter frame collapse at extreme ends and general instability over the remaining length. This is possibly one of the reasons for the much lower buckling pressures as compared to the results obtained by Ken-

reference radius; also radius of cylinder with zero meridional curvature surface area before deformation surface area after deformation area of stiffeners Ef/( I - v) vector of displacement functions and their derivatives Ef/l2(1v) matrix defining relationship between {d} and {a} Youngs modulus geometric stiffness matrix second moment of area of stiffener harmonic number elastic stiffness matrix matrix defining general&d stress strain relationship reference length, taken as total length of the shell; unit outward normal to shell initial stress matrix load vector external pressure radius of shell at any point matrix defining relationship between rotation tensor and displacement functions and derivatives meridional coordinate matrix defining relationship between strain tensor and displacement functions and derivatives thickness of shell unit tangents along S and 0 displacement along ts displacement vector

50

100

Pii. 5. Mode shape-normal

displacement,

w cylinder I/o = 3.0,:

= 100.

Stabilityanalysis of ring stiffenedshellsof revolution strain energy displacementalong tB displacementalong n centroidof stiffenerarea from shell midsurface generaliseddisplacementdegreesof freedom meridionalrotation matrix Dennis relations between generalised displacement degrees of freedom and nodal displacement degreesof freedom{6} nodal displacementvector strain tensor extensionalstrain tensor for mid-surfaceof shell circumferentialcoordinatefor shell curvaturetensor for mid-surfaceof shell Poissonsratio rotation tensor potentialof external load ReFERENCfs 1. S. Kendrick,The bucklingunder externalpressureof circular cylindricalshells with evenly spaced,equal strengthcircular ring frames: Part I NCRE Report R/211; Part II NCRE ReportR/243;Part III NCREReportR/244. 2. S. Kendrick, The buckling under external pressure of ring stiffened circular cylinders. J; RINA 107(l) 139-155(Jan. 1%5). 3. C. T. F. Ross, The instability of ring stiffenedcircular cylindrical shells under uniform external pressure. J. RZNA 107(l),156-163 (Jan. 1%5). 4. R. H. Gallagherand J. Padlog,Discreteelement approachto structuralinstability analysis J. AIAA l(6), 1437-1439 (June, 1963). 5. R. H. Gallagher,et al., A discreteelement procedurefor thin

503

shell instability analysis. J. AZAA5(l), 138-145 (Jan. 1967). 6. D. R. Navaratna,T. H. H. Pian and E. A. Witmer.Stability analysis of shellsof revolutionby the finite element method. 1. AIAA 6(2). 355-361(Feb. 1968). . I. R. H. Mallet and P. V. MarcaLFiniteelement analvsis of non-linear structures. J. St&t. Div. ASCE, 9@T9), 2081-2105. Proc. Paoer 6115(Seot. 1968). 8. P. V. Marcal,Lamestrain, largedisplacementanalysis, LecI,

(Editedbv J. T. Oden et al.). UAH Press. NewYork. 9. PT-VI M&al, Kns~~ity analysis using the incremental stiffness matrices. Lectures on Finite Element Methods in ContinuumMechanics. (Edited by J. T. Oden et al.). UAH Press, New York. 10. J. L. Sanders,Non-lineartheoriesfor thin shells.Quart.Appl. Math. 21(l), 21-36(1%3). and Il. G. V. Rao, S. K. Radhamohan I. S. Raju, Reinvestigation of bucks of shellsof revolutionby a refinedlinite element. J. AIAA 12(l), 108-101 (1974). 12. J. G. Svmmondsand D. A. Danielson, New results for the buckling loads of axially compressedcylindricalshells subjected to relaxedSunday con~tions. 1. App. Mech., Buns. ASME37,93-100(1970). 13. N. P. Semenyuk, Stability of reinforced cylindrical shells under external pressure. Soviet Appl. Mach. 14(l), 45-49 (1978). 14. S. R. Bodner,On the conservativenessof variousdistributed force systems.1. Aero. Sci. 132-133 (1958). 15. J. Hibbitt. Some follower forces and load stiffness. fnt. J.
Num. Meth. Engng 14(6),(1979). 16. J. Loganthan et al. Finite element representationand pressure stiffness in shell stability analysis. Int. I. Num. Meth. Engng U(9), (1979).

tures on Fit&e Element Methods &I Continuum Mechanics