Towards a rationally based elastic-plastic shell buckling design methodology

Stability in Shells

“…Almost by accident (see for example a recent account of the development of the reduced stiffness method [3]), my early efforts to analyse wind tunnel buckling test results led to the development of the reduced stiffness method. But it was the regular discussions with Mike, often after a vigorous game of squash, with his strong advocacy of energy methods, that the interpretation of the differential equations I was dealing with at the time became clear.…”

Optimisation of shell buckling using lower bound capacities

“…(These have been discussed in, for example, [5,6]). To avoid additional complication, the following will assume that plastic failure is not involved and the task of predicting safe buckling loads is dependent upon just the prediction of lower bounds to elastic buckling loads.…”

“…It has to be said that even now the inherent simplicity of the idea and its analytical realisation seems hard for many fellow shellbuckling analysts to accept. More extensive descriptions of the details of the method can be found elsewhere, see for example Croll [6], while some personal reflections have recently appeared in Croll [7].…”

An overview of buckling and ultimate strength of spherical pressure hull under external pressure

“…The 'reduced stiffness method' for the analysis of shell buckling was developed to overcome a trend towards increasingly sophisticated analysis that has become divorced from its basically simple underlying physics. The developments of the reduced stiffness method from its origins in the late 1960s, through its experimental confirmation, generalization and elaboration over the past 20 years, to its more recent consolidation using carefully controlled non-linear numerical experiments have been reviewed by Croll [5]. It is suggested that the method has reached a stage where it could profitably be adopted as a basis for an improved shell buckling design methodology.…”