Asia-Pacific Conference on FRP in Structures (APFIS 2007)

S.T. Smith (ed)

2007 International Institute for FRP in Construction

ELASTIC BUCKLING OF FRP-STRENGTHENED CYLINDERS WITH

AXISYMMETRIC IMPERFECTIONS

M. Batikha, J.F. Chen and J.M. Rotter

Institute for Infrastructure and Environment, The University of Edinburgh, UK

ABSTRACT

Externally bonding of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites has become a popular technique for
retrofitting existing structures worldwide. Extensive research has been conducted in the last two decades on
various topics such as strengthening concrete, masonry and timber structures as well as metallic structures. The
vast majority of these studies have focussed on the failure strength, rather than on stability considerations. A
study is currently being conducted at Edinburgh University on the strengthening of thin metal shell structures
using FRP composites. This paper presents a numerical study of the buckling behaviour of FRP strengthened
thin cylindrical shells with an axisymmetric imperfection. The results show that the buckling strength of the
shell under axial loading can be significantly increased by using only a small amount of FRP in the critical area
of the imperfection. This outcome indicates that this technique is indeed very effective and economical for
enhancing the buckling strength of thin shell structures, especially under conditions where a local defect causes
the shell to fail the tolerance requirement.

KEYWORDS

Metallic shells, cylindrical shells, axisymmetric imperfections, FRP, strengthening, FE analysis, axial load.

INTRODUCTION

The buckling of thin metallic shells has been studied scientifically since the beginning of the twentieth century.
Both physical experiments and theoretical investigations have shown that the buckling strength of these thin
shell structures is very sensitive to geometric imperfections, as a result of which extensive research has been
conducted on this topic ever since. Among the different forms that a thin shell structure can take, the cylindrical
shell is the most common: cylinders are widely used in aircraft, pressure vessels, and as storage structures for
many different kind of materials (water, petroleum, agricultural and mining products etc.) as tanks and silos. For
a thin cylindrical shell under axial compression, Rotter and Teng (1989) and Rotter (1996, 2004) showed that a
local axisymmetric imperfection is a practically probable form that leads to dramatic reductions in the buckling
strength, which are generally more pronounced than those for non-symmetric imperfections.

Axisymmetric or nearly axisymmetric imperfections in cylindrical shells are commonly present at welded joints
where rolled steel plates are joined together with a circumferential weld. The heating and cooling process results
in a circumferential depression at each circumferential joint. Two limiting forms for the resulting imperfect form
were proposed by Rotter and Teng (1989), which they termed Types A and B. They recognised that other forms
between these two might also occur. Both were based on natural shell deformations. For Type A, it was
assumed that the depression would develop without any flexural yielding during cooling. By contrast, for Type
B, it was assumed that the depression would develop with complete local flexibly in bending at the weld during
cooling. Using nonlinear buckling calculations, it was shown that Type A depressions had a consistently lower
buckling strength than Type B, so the former is more commonly used in research studies.

This study is concerned with the enhancement of the buckling strength of a cylindrical shell that has an
axisymmetric imperfection. It is proposed that the shell should be strengthened by externally bonding a sheet of
fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composite at the vicinity of the imperfection. FRP composites have been
extensively used to strengthen concrete structures since the 1990s (Teng et al. 2002, 2003). This FRP research
has been extended to strengthening metallic beams (Teng and Zhang 2007), masonry (Thanasis and Triantafillou
1996, Chen 2002) and timber structures (Gilfillan et al. 2003). In all these cases, the main concern has been the
strength of the structure controlled by material failure rather than its stability or buckling strength. Teng and Hu
(2004, 2007) explored the behaviour of circular steel tubes subjected to axial load and confined by FRP jacketing

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and elephant's foot buckling of cylindrical shells when the whole shell is wrapped with FRP. Both experiments
and FE analysis demonstrated that the ductility of the tubes was greatly enhanced by the FRP. Their numerical
investigation also showed that the elephant's foot buckling strength of a cylindrical shell can be significantly
enhanced by the FRP wraps. The authors of the present paper have recently explored the use of FRP composites
to enhance the elephants foot buckling strength near the base of a cylindrical shell subjected to internal pressure
and axial load (Batikha et al. 2007a, b). It was shown that a small amount of FRP, placed at the critical location,
can significantly decrease the radial deformation of the shell, leading to an increase of the elephant's foot
buckling strength. This paper presents a numerical investigation into the elastic buckling strength of an imperfect
cylindrical shell under axial loads that is strengthened using FRP. The imperfection form of an axisymmetric
inward imperfection is adopted and the analysis is undertaken using Geometrically Non-linear Analysis with
explicit modelling of Imperfections (GNIA) using the finite element method.

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS PROCEDURES

Geometry, Boundary Conditions, Material Properties and Loading

A cylindrical shell of height h = 3000mm, radius R = 1000mm and thickness ts = 1mm was considered in this
study. The shell has a radius to thickness ratio of 1000, and falls into the class of medium length cylinders
according to Eurocode 3 Part 1.6 (2007). The wall thickness of the cylindrical shell is assumed to be constant
over the whole structure. The boundary conditions at both ends are held circular (free in all directions except for
rotation about the circumferential axis). This corresponds to part of a much longer shell. The material of the
shell was assumed to have a Youngs modulus Es=200GPa and Poissons ratio s= 0.3. A uniform axial load N
was applied at the top of the shell (Figure 1).

t = 1mm

Figure.1. The cylindrical shell

Imperfection

The cylindrical shell was assumed to have an axisymmetric inward imperfection at the mid-height (Figure 1).
The shape of imperfection was chosen to be Type A as described by Rotter and Teng (1989):
z / z z
=0e 0 (sin + cos ) (1)
0 0
in which 0 is the amplitude of the imperfection, 0 is the half wavelength for the adopted shape of imperfection
and z is the axial coordinate from the middle of the imperfection as shown in Figure 1. Rotter (1997) showed that
the lowest buckling strength is found when 0 is close to , the linear bending half wavelength of the shell,
which is is given by:

= Rt s = 2.44 Rt s (2)
(3(1 v s ))
2 1/ 4

In this study the imperfection half-wavelength 0= was therefore adopted.

FE Modelling

Geometrically Non-linear Analysis with Imperfections (GNIA) was performed using the finite element package
ABAQUS (2006). The cylindrical shell was modelled using the 4-node doubly curved thin shell element S4R5.
Each node in the element has five degrees of freedom (three displacements and two in-surface rotations).

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Reduced integration with hourglass control was adopted. The shell was assumed to behave elastically and the
bifurcation buckling strength controlled the ultimate strength of the shell. It may be noted that a cylinder with the
above material properties always buckles elastically when the radius to thickness ratio is bigger than 400 (Rotter
1997). Although bifurcation may not always limit the strength of a cylindrical shell with very large amplitude
imperfections and plastic deformation may occur very shortly after bifurcation (Rotter and Teng 1989), and
plastic collapse failures can occur when the imperfection is very deep (0/ts > 3.5) (Berry et al. 2000), for the
example thin shell with moderate imperfections up to 0/ts = 3.5, the elastic bifurcation load is a reasonable limit.

A mesh convergence study was undertaken for the case of an imperfection amplitude of 0/ts=2. This study
concluded that an element size of 0.2 Rt in both the circumferential and meridional directions near the weld
depression is sufficient to give converged results. It may be noted that Rotter and Teng (1989) used an element
size of 0.25 Rt in the meridional direction but they used cubic elements. Berry et al. (2000) used 40 elements in
each half wavelength 0 for a cylinder with a clamped base, making a very fine mesh with element size of
0.06 Rt in the meridional direction.

BUCKLING STRESS OF UNPRESSURISED IMPERFECT CYLINDER

The buckling stress for a cylindrical shell under uniform axial compression is usually related to the classical
elastic critical stress cl, given by:
Es ts t
cl = 0.605Es s (3)
2 1/ 2 R
[3(1 )] R
s

Geometric imperfections are the main cause of strength reductions. Figure 2 shows the effect of an imperfection
on the buckling strength for the example cylinder under axial loads. It shows that the present FE study is in an
excellent agreement with the results obtained by Rotter and Teng (1989). From Figure 2, it may be seen that the
clamped base investigated by Berry et al. (2000) has a slightly higher buckling strength. This was also noted by
Rotter (1990) for axially compressed and pressurized very thin cylinders with R/t>1000.

1
Normalized buckling strength cr/cl

0.9 Finite Element analysis of this study

0.8 Rotter and Teng (1989), Rotter (1997, 2004)
0.7 Berry et al.(2000)
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
Normalized welded joint imperfection amplitude 0/ts

Figure. 2. Effect of imperfection on buckling strength

BUCKLING STRESS OF FRP STRENGTHENED IMPERFECT CYLINDRICAL SHELL

It is proposed that FRP composites are externally bonded to the zone around the local imperfection on the
example shell as described earlier. The FRP sheet was chosen to be centred at the mid-height of the imperfection
and with a height hf. It was treated as orthotropic, with moduli in the circumferential and meridional directions
Ef = 230GPa and Efz, = 3GPa respectively, with a Poissons ratio f = 0.35. These values are typical for CFRP
with unidirectional fibres. The FRP was bonded to the metal shell with a 1mm thick adhesive which had a
Youngs modulus of 3GPa and Poissons ratio of 0.35. Figure 3 shows the axial stress - axial shortening curves
for the shell with and without FRP strengthening. An imperfection amplitude of 0/ts = 2 was assumed and the
FRP height ratio of hf/=2 was used in these calculations. It is seen that the buckling load can be significantly
enhanced with FRP strengthening, and this enhancement increases as the bending stiffness of the FRP is
increased. If the value of the FRP bending stiffness is fixed at = Eftf3/Ests3=6, the buckling strength is also
increased by an increase in the height of the FRP within the range shown in Figure 5.

APFIS 2007 1013

 0.9
Eftf3/Ests3=6
Eftf3/Et3=6

Normalized axial stress mz/cl

0.8
Eftf3/Ests3=74
Eftf3/Et3=74
0.7
Eftf3/Ests3=248
Eftf3/Et3=248
0.6
Without FRP
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Normalized axail shortening wz/ts

Figure 3. Effect of FRP stiffness on axial stress - axial shortening curves (hf/=2,0/ts=2).

0.5
Normalized axial stress mz/cl

0.45 height ratio=2

0.4 height ratio=10
0.35
Without FRP
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Normalized axail shortening wz/ts

Figure 4. Effect of FRP height on axial stress - axial shortening curves (=Efrtf3/Ests3=6 and 0/ts = 2).

1
Normalized buckling strength

0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
cr/cl

0.5
0.4 0/ts=0.1
d0/t=0.1 0/ts=0.25
d0/t=0.25 0/ts=0.5
d0/t=0.5
0.3
0.2 0/ts=1
d0/t=1 0/ts=1.5
d0/t=1.5 0/ts=2
d0/t=2
0.1
0
0 25 50 75 100 125 150
Normalized FRP thickness Eftf3/Ests3

Figure 5. Effect of FRP stiffness on buckling stress (hf/ = 2).

The effect of the FRP thickness on the buckling strength of the shell is shown in more detail in Figure 5, where
cylinders with different amplitudes of imperfection are explored. Here the FRP height hf is fixed to two times
the half bending wavelength . The dimensionless stiffness has a very strong effect on the buckling strength
of the shell (Figure 5). When increases from 0, the buckling strength initially increases very fast and rapidly
approaches an upper limit value for the given imperfection.

Because the FRP is applied within the vicinity of the imperfection, buckling will occur elsewhere in the
unstrengthened parts of the shell when the classical elastic critical stress for a perfect shell is reached,
irrespective of how much FRP is used. Therefore, the upper limit of attainable buckling strengths in given by
the dimensionless ordinate of 1.0 in Figure 1. Figure 5 shows that the achieved upper limit with FRP
strengthening is lower than 1.0, and this upper limit reduces as the imperfection amplitude increases. This may

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be understood by examining the imperfection forms (Figure 6) produced by Eq. 1 with different amplitudes.
When the FRP height hf is fixed to 2 as in this example, it terminates at a distance of both above and below
the middle of the imperfection (i.e. the FRP terminates at a vertical coordinate of 1.0 in Figure 6). Clearly the
imperfection extends beyond the FRP, and the imperfection outside the FRP can reduce the buckling strength
even if the FRP is very stiff. Moreover, the addition of a local stiff zone where the FRP is applied constitutes an
imperfection of a different kind, so this may also play a role in reducing the buckling strength slightly.

Normalized distanse above the mid 2.5

length of imperfection z/ 0/ts=2
d0/t=2

2 d0/t=1.5
0/ts=1.5

0/ts=1
d0/t=1
1.5
0/ts=0.5
d0/t=0.5

d0/t=0.25
0/ts=0.25
1
0/ts=0.1
d0/t=0.1

0.5

0
-2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5
Normalized axisymmetrical imperfection /t

Figure 6. Type A welded joint imperfection

1
Normalized buckling strength

0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
cr/cl

0.5 height ratio=1

0.4 height ratio=2
height ratio=4
0.3
height ratio=10
0.2 height ratio=20
0.1 height ratio=40
0
0 25 50 75 100 125 150
3 3
Normalized FRP Stiffness Eftf /Ests

Figure 7. Buckling strength for different FRP height and stiffness values (0/ts = 2)

1 Without FRP
0.9
Normalized buckling strength

height ratio=1
0.8 height ratio=2
0.7 height ratio=4
0.6 height ratio=10
cr/cl

0.5 height ratio=20

height ratio=40
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2
Normalized imperfection amplitude 0/ts

Figure8. Effect of imperfection amplitude on buckling strength for different FRP heights (Eftf3/Ests3=0.76)

APFIS 2007 1015

The effect of different heights of FRP on the buckling strength of the example shell is shown in Figure 7. Here
an imperfection amplitude of 0=2 is adopted and the height of the FRP is defined in terms of the normalised
height hf/. The upper limit of the buckling strength rises when the FRP height is increased, but this limit is
always smaller than 1.0 unless the entire height of the shell is strengthened with FRP (which is unlikely to be
economical). However, the strength increase is not proportional to the normalised FRP height: small heights of
FRP (1 < hf/ < 2) are very effective, but further addition of FRP is much less effective. This is also evident in
Figure 8 where the normalised FRP stiffness is fixed at a more practical value of =Eftf3/Ests3=0.76. It is evident
that the buckling strength cannot be increased significantly by increasing the FRP height ratio beyond 4,
especially when the imperfection amplitude is small.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper has presented an initial study of the strengthening of imperfect cylindrical shells using FRP. The
cylinders were subject to axial compression leading to elastic buckling, and contained an axisymmetric
imperfection of varying amplitude. The effects of the amplitude of the imperfection, the FRP stiffness and the
FRP height have been investigated. The results show that the buckling strength can be significantly increased by
bonding FRP within a small zone around the imperfection, indicating that the proposed technique can be very
effective and economical, especially where a deep local imperfection causes the assessed strength of the shell to
be down-rated.

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