INFLUENCE OF BOUNDARY CONDITION ON THE BUCKLING OF AXIALLY COMPRESSED CONES AND CYLINDERS

The aim of this research work is to provide experimental data on the influence of boundary condition on the buckling behavior (i.e., buckling load and deformed shape) of axially compressed cones and cylinders. Two boundary conditions were considered, they are: (i) fully clamped at the bottom ends and allowed to move in the axial direction at the top ends (clamped condition), and (ii) allow all displacement movement except axial direction at the bottom and restrict all movement at the top except axial direction (simply supported condition). Results of tests on eight mild steel specimens (i.e., four cones and four cylinders) and their accompanying numerical prediction of load carrying capacity are provided. Specimens were relatively thick with nominal wall thickness of 2 mm. All specimens were subjected to axial compression using universal instron machine. Experimental result reveals that clamped cones lead to higher buckling load as compared to simply supported cones, i.e., [(215.09 kN, 215.37 kN) vs (163.68 kN, 167.87 kN)] for two nominally identical pairs. Whilst, for clamped and simply supported cylinders, the difference is marginal and negligible for two nominally identical pairs, i.e., [(185.18 kN, 184.81 kN) vs (187.31 kN, 182.09 kN)]. In addition, comparison between ABAQUS FE results and experimental data shows that there is a good agreement in the magnitude of the buckling load and buckling mode of the specimens.