2024/10/11 by Fani Derveni, Derveni, Fani, Choquart, Florian +6 · 1 citation
Engineering · #Composite Structure Analysis and Optimization #FOS: Physical sciences #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Structural Analysis and Optimization #Topology Optimization in Engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2410.08973
openalex publication_date 2024/10/11 · openalex created_date 2024/10/20 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We perform a probabilistic investigation on the effect of systematically removing imperfections on the buckling behavior of pressurized thin, elastic, hemispherical shells containing a distribution of defects. We employ finite element simulations, which were previously validated against experiments, to assess the maximum buckling pressure, as measured by the knockdown factor, of these multi-defect shells. Specifically, we remove fractions of either the least or the most severe imperfections to quantify their influence on the buckling onset. We consider shells with a random distribution of defects whose mean amplitude and standard deviation are systematically explored while, for simplicity, fixing the width of the defect to a characteristic value. Our primary finding is that the most severe imperfection of a multi-defect shell dictates its buckling onset. Notably, shells containing a single imperfection corresponding to the maximum amplitude (the most severe) defect of shells with a distribution of imperfections exhibit an identical knockdown factor to the latter case. Our results suggest a simplified approach to studying the buckling of more realistic multi-defect shells, once their most severe defect has been identified, using a well-characterized single-defect description, akin to the weakest-link setting in extreme-value probabilistic problems.