Buckling of a Toroidal Shell with Varying Wall Thickness Under Uniform External Pressure

Abstract

In this study, the buckling analysis and comparative study of toroidal shell with uniform wall thickness and toroidal shell with varying wall thickness were investigated. Through the numerical calculation based on the arc length method, the buckling load, destruction mode and Huber-Mises-Hencky stress under the critical state of the two kinds of shell were obtained, and a comparative analysis was carried out. The numerical results suggested that the buckling loads of the toroidal shell with varying wall thickness optimised by equal strength design was significantly improved, which was 1.304 times that of the toroidal shell with uniform wall thickness. In addition, it was also found that both shells were buckled in a nonlinear elastic plastic mode. The research can provide new ideas for the optimization of toroidal shells.