Plastic Buckling of Conical Shells

This paper studies the static stability of metal cones subjected to combined, simultaneous action of the external pressure and axial compression. Cones are relatively thick; hence, their buckling performance remains within the elastic-plastic range. The literature review shows that there are very few results within this range and none on combined stability. The current paper aims to fill this gap. Combined stability plot, sometimes called interactive stability plot, is obtained for mild steel models. Most attention is given to buckling caused by a single type of loading, i.e., by hydrostatic external pressure and by axial compression. Asymmetric bifurcation bucklings, collapse load in addition to the first yield pressure and first yield force, are computed using two independent proprietory codes in order to compare predictions given by them. Finally, selected cone configurations are used to verify numerical findings. To this end four cones were computer numerically controlled-machined from a solid steel billet of 252 mm in diameter. All cones had integral top and bottom flanges in order to mimic realistic boundary conditions. Computed predictions of buckling loads, caused by external hydrostatic pressure, were close to the experimental values. But similar comparisons for axially compressed cones are not so good. Possible reasons for this disparity are discussed in the paper.