Effect of Initial Imperfections on Dynamic Buckling of Shells

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Abstract
A thin aluminum cylindrical shell was subjected to an impulsive halfcosine external load applied with explosives. The observed response consisted of an initial dynamic pulse buckling followed by large inward displacements of the loaded side of the shell, Accurate calculation of this response was obtained with a finite element algorithm using a description of the imperfections initially present in the load and in the geometry of the shell. An imperfection sensitivity study was performed to investigate the influence of various imperfection distributions on the dynamic buckling response. Based on this study, recommendations are made for incorporating imperfections into similar dynamic buckling calculations.