Creating Geometric Imperfections in Thin-Walled Structures using Acoustic Excitation

Thermomechanical buckling of slender and thin-walled structural components happens without warning and can lead to catastrophic failure. Similar phenomena are observed during plasmolysis (contraction of a plant cell’s protoplast) and rupture of viral capsids. Analytical formulas derived from stability analyses of elastic plates, cylinders, and shells that do not account for the effects of random geometric imperfections introduced during the manufacturing process or biological growth may vastly over-estimate buckling capacity. To ensure structural safety the formulas must therefore be combined with empirical data to define “knock down factors” which are in turn used to establish safety factors. Towards improved understanding of the role of imperfections on mechanical response, ingenious methods have been used to fabricate and test near-perfectly hemispherical shells and those containing dimple-like defects. However, a method of inducing imperfections in the form of randomly-shaped surfaces remains elusive. We introduce a protocol for realizing such imperfect shells and measuring the pressure required to buckle them. Silicone is poured onto an elastomeric mold under an acoustic excitation, which can be either random sound, or if desired the same as the modal frequency of the mold. Illustrative micro-Computed-Tomography images and buckling pressure experiments of a nearly-perfect shell and an imperfect one show that the method is effective in introducing randomly-shaped imperfections of significant magnitudes. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that the experimental results when combined with computational simulations can lead to improved understanding of stochastic buckling phenomena.