Mechanics of Confined

Thin-Walled Cylinders
Daniel Vasilikis
e-mail: davasili@uth.gr
Spyros A. Karamanos1
e-mail: skara@mie.uth.gr
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Thessaly,
Volos 38334, Greece
Subjected to External Pressure
Motivated by practical engineering applications, the present paper examines the mechanical
response of thin-walled cylinders surrounded by a rigid or deformable medium, subjected
to uniform external pressure. Emphasis is given to structural stability in terms of buck-
ling, postbuckling, and imperfection sensitivity. The present investigation is computa-
tional and employs a two-dimensional model, where the cylinder and the surrounding
medium are simulated with nonlinear finite elements. The behavior of cylinders made of
elastic material is examined first, and a successful comparison of the numerical results is
conducted with available closed-form analytical solutions for rigidly confined cylinders.
Subsequently, the response of confined thin-walled steel cylinders is examined. The nu-
merical results show an unstable postbuckling response beyond the point of maximum
pressure and indicate severe imperfection sensitivity on the value of the maximum pres-
sure. A good comparison with limited available test data is also shown. Furthermore, the
effects of the deformability of the surrounding medium are examined. In particular, soil
embedment conditions are examined, with direct reference to the case of buried thin-
walled steel pipelines. Finally, based on the numerical results, a comparison is attempted
between the present buckling problem and the problem of “shrink buckling.” The differ-
ences between those two problems of confined cylinder buckling are pinpointed, empha-
sizing the issue of imperfection sensitivity. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4024165]

1 Introduction For an extensive literature review on the shrink buckling problem,

In several engineering applications, steel cylinders subjected to
external pressure are surrounded by a confining medium. Under
those conditions, the cylinders may buckle because of excessive
hoop compression. Buried steel pipelines [1] under such loading
conditions can often fail in the form of structural instability; when
the groundwater table is above the pipeline level, the water
reaches the pipe through the permeable surrounding soil or con-
crete encasement, and hydrostatic pressure conditions develop
around the pipeline, which may cause buckling of the steel pipe-
line wall. In addition, thin-walled liners, made of steel or plastic
material, used to rehabilitate damaged pipelines [2], may also fail
under similar loading conditions. Furthermore, tunnels and ducts
that transport gases or liquids in power plants are often lined with
cylindrical steel shells [3], which may buckle because of external
pressure under lateral confinement. Finally, steel tubes employed
as casing in oil and gas production wells [4] are also typical exam-
ples of externally pressurized cylinders, which may fail under
confined conditions.
In all the above engineering applications, significant hoop
stresses develop in the cylinder wall due to hydrostatic pressure
conditions because of the permeability of the surrounding me-
dium. When these hoop stresses exceed a critical level, the cylin-
der loses its structural stability and buckles. In such a case, due to
the surrounding medium, the cylinder wall is not free to deform in
the outward direction, and buckling occurs in the form of an
“inward lobe,” as shown in Fig. 1 at a pressure level significantly
higher than the one under unconfined conditions.
The present paper focuses on buckling and postbuckling of cylin-
ders subjected to uniform external pressure, surrounded by a deform-
able confining medium. It should be noted that buckling of confined
cylinders under hydrostatic pressure is different than buckling under
thermal effects, sometimes referred to as “shrink buckling” [5–7].
1  0:8
Corresponding author.
Manuscript received August 21, 2012; final manuscript received March 29, 2013;
published online November 26, 2013. Editor: Harry Dankowicz.
the reader is referred to the paper by Omara et al. [2]. In the last
part of the present paper, a direct comparison between the present
problem and the problem of shrink buckling is offered, based on
numerical simulation results.
The single-lobe mode of Fig. 1 has been observed in experi-
ments and in real applications of externally pressurized cylinders
under confined conditions. The first analytical attempts to predict
this buckling behavior have been reported in the book of Feodo-
syev [8] and the paper of Glock [9]. Glock presented an energy
formulation and solution of the hydrostatic buckling problem of
rigidly confined cylinders made of elastic material, assuming no
friction between the ring and the nondeformable medium, as well
as no variation of stress and deformation in the axial direction of
the cylinder, and resulted in the following closed-form expression
for the buckling pressure:
E  t 2:2
pGL ¼ (1)
1  2 D
where E is Young’s modulus,  is Poisson’s ratio, D is the cylin-
der diameter, and t is the wall thickness. For a concise presenta-
tion of the Glock’s solution, the reader is referred to the paper of
Omara et al. [2]. It is interesting to note that for diameter-to-thick-
ness (D=t) values between 100 and 300, which are typical values
for buried pipelines and rehabilitation liners, the value of pGL is
significantly higher than the buckling (bifurcation) pressure pe of
a long (free of boundary conditions) externally pressurized per-
fectly round elastic cylinder under unconfined conditions, given
by the following formula [10]:
2E  t 3
pe ¼ (2)
1  2 D
The ratio of Eqs. (1) and (2), results in
pGL D
¼ 0:5 (3)
pe t

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Fig. 1 Schematic representation of the buckling problem of an
externally pressurized cylinder confined by the surrounding
medium
It can readily verified that the ultimate value of pressure pGL
calculated from Eq. (1) is 20–48 times higher than the buckling
pressure pe under unconfined conditions. The validity of Glock’s
Eq. (1) in predicting the buckling pressure of rigidly confined
elastic cylinders has been verified by the finite element results
reported by El-Sawy and Moore [11]. In that publication, El-Sawy
and Moore also accounted for the presence of initial gap g
between the cylinder and the rigid surrounding medium (“loosely
fitted cylinders”) and resulted in the following empirical analyti-
cal expression for the buckling pressure:
! py
2E  t 3 25 þ 700ðt=DÞ þ 315ðg=RÞ
pEM ¼
1  2 D 0:15 þ 130ðt=DÞ þ 1400ðt=DÞ2 þ145ðg=RÞ
(4)
The last term in the right-hand side of Eq. (4) within the parenthe-
sis expresses the increase of the classical elastic buckling pressure
pe for unconfined conditions (see Eq. (2)) when rigid confining
conditions are imposed on the externally pressurized cylinder.
Assuming a zero value of initial gap (g ¼ 0), the comparison
between Eq. (4) and Glock’s formula [1] shows that the former em-
pirical formula can predict quite accurately the buckling pressure of
tightly fitted elastic cylinders in a rigid cavity. The validity of
Glock’s formula has also been tested against experimental data [12].
An enhancement of Glock’s solution [9] has been developed by
Boot [13] to account for the presence of initial gap between the
cylinder and the rigid medium, whereas notable contributions on
this subject have also been reported by Bottega [14] and Li and
Kyriakides [15], who examined analytically the behavior of two
concentric, contacting elastic rings, subjected to external compres-
sive loading. The work in Ref. [15] has been extended to investi-
gate buckling propagation in a long elastic cylinder in contact
with an outer elastic cylindrical shell [16].
The above works on confined cylinder buckling refer to cylin-
ders made of elastic material. It is interesting to note that despite
the numerous publications on the mechanical behavior and buck-
ling of elastic cylinders, significantly fewer investigations exist on
the corresponding buckling problem of steel cylinders, which is
associated with elastic-plastic material behavior. As a first approx-
imation, the ultimate external pressure capacity can be estimated
as the pressure that causes first yielding at the outer fiber of the
cylinder wall. Based on this assumption, Montel [17] employed
Timoshenko’s solution for thin ring deflection [18] and experi-
mental results [19] to develop a semi-empirical formula for the
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buckling pressure of cylinders embedded in a stiff (nondeform-
able) cavity, in terms of the material yield stress ry , the cylinder
geometry D=t, the initial out-of-roundness with amplitude d0 , and
the initial gap with maximum value g between the cylinder and
the rigid cavity:
14:1ry
pM ¼ (5)
ðD=tÞ1:5 ½1 þ 1:2ðd0 þ 2gÞ=t
The above Eq. (5) has been proposed for a range of parameters,
namely 60  D=t  340, 250 MPa  ry  500 MPa, 0:1  d0
=t  0:5, and g=t  0:25. Clearly, the ultimate pressure pM of
Eq. (5) is a decreasing function of both imperfection types d0 and
g, as well as a decreasing function of the diameter-to-thickness ra-
tio D=t. Furthermore, it can be readily shown that for D=t between
100 and 300, the value of pM is well below the yield or plastic
pressure py of the cylinder, i.e., the nominal pressure that causes
full plastification of the cylinder wall. From thin-walled vessel
theory, and considering a von Mises yield criterion under plane
strain conditions for the deforming cylinder cross section, the
plastic pressure py is readily calculated equal to
ry t
py ¼ 2 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (6)
1þ D 2
where ry is the yield stress of the material
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi under uniaxial stress
conditions, and factor 1= 1   þ  2 accounts for increase of
yield stress in the hoop direction due to plane strain conditions,
equal to 1.13 for  ¼ 0:30. Note that the plastic pressure py is a
decreasing function of the D=t ratio. Dividing Eqs. (5) and (6),
and assuming  ¼ 0:30, one obtains for perfect cylinders
(d0 ¼ g ¼ 0)
 t 0:5
pM
¼ 6:24 (7)
D
It is interesting to note that, for D=t values ranging between 100
and 300, Montel’s equation predicts a pressure capacity pM rang-
ing from 36% to 62.4% of the plastic pressure py .
Failure at first yielding was also assumed by Amstutz [20] and
Jacobsen [21], who developed analytical expressions for the exter-
nal pressure collapse of embedded rings. A comparison between
Montel’s Eq. (5) and the methodologies proposed by Amstutz
[20] and Jacobsen [21] is offered by Taras and Greiner [22], for
the design of tunnel steel linings under external pressure. Yama-
moto and Matsubara [23] reported a numerical solution for the
ultimate pressure sustained by a steel cylinder embedded in a rigid
cavity. Kyriakides and Youn [24] and Kyriakides [25] conducted
a more rigorous investigation of buckling and postbuckling behav-
ior of confined cylinders under external pressure, using a semi-
analytical formulation, which was based on nonlinear ring theory.
El-Sawy, extending the work in Ref. [11], examined numerically
the buckling response of tightly fitted [26] and loosely fitted [27]
steel cylinders, surrounded by a rigid boundary and subjected to
external pressure. In a recent continuation of his work, El-Sawy
[28] examined the behavior of confined cylinders under external
pressure with particular emphasis on the stability of steel liners
with localized wavy imperfections, as well as the effects of liner’s
material properties and geometrical parameters. Furthermore,
buckling and postbuckling of vertical sandwich shells under lat-
eral pressure has been investigated by Estrada et al. [29] through a
parametric study that accounted for the influence of shell slender-
ness, imperfection amplitude, and soil elasticity.
Vasilikis and Karamanos [30] investigated the structural stabil-
ity of thin-walled elastic and steel cylinders, with diameter-to-
thickness D=t ratio that ranges between 100 and 300, surrounded
by an elastic medium, in terms of their structural stability under
uniform external pressure using a nonlinear two-dimensional fi-
nite element model. The numerical results have demonstrated that
Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 2 Finite element model of cylinder-medium system
the ultimate (buckling) pressure is substantially lower than the
plastic pressure of the cylinder and is affected by the presence of
initial imperfections in terms of cylinder out-of-roundness and
gap between the cylinder and the medium. In a subsequent publi-
cation, Vasilikis and Karamanos [31] proposed a methodology for
the buckling design of steel cylinders confined by a rigid or deform-
able medium, within the framework of the new European shell sta-
bility design rules [32] and recommendations [33]. In both Refs.
[30] and [31], special emphasis is given to the sensitivity of the ulti-
mate pressure on the presence of initial imperfections, assumed in
the form of both out-of-roundness of the ring geometry and a small
gap between the ring and the elastic medium.
The present paper has a dual purpose. First, it offers an over-
view of the hydrostatic buckling problem of confined cylinders. In
addition, it provides a more-in depth investigation on several issues
of buckling behavior of confined cylinders, with emphasis on imper-
fection sensitivity and the effects of deformable medium, extending
the work presented in Refs. [30] and [31]. Towards the above pur-
pose, the interacting system of the cylinder and the surrounding-
medium encasement is simulated through nonlinear finite elements.
In addition, the problem of shrink buckling is modeled and the results
are compared with available experimental data, as well as results
from the corresponding hydrostatic buckling problem.
2 Finite Element Simulation
The structural behavior of confined cylinders under uniform
external pressure is examined with nonlinear finite elements,
Fig. 3 Schematic representation of a confined ring with (a) gap-type initial imper-
fection and (b) out-of-roundness initial imperfection
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using the general-purpose finite element program ABAQUS [34].
The analysis considers nonlinear geometry, through a large-strain
description of the deformable medium, as well as inelastic mate-
rial behavior and it is similar to the one adopted in Refs. [30] and
[31].
No variation of loading and deformation is assumed along the
cylinder so that a two-dimensional finite element model of the cyl-
inder is considered, with one element in the longitudinal direction
of the cylinder, under plane-strain conditions. From the symmetry
of the single-lobe postbuckling shape of the cylinder, half of the
cylinder cross section is analyzed, applying appropriate symmetry
conditions at the h ¼ 0 plane. The thin-walled steel cylinder is
modeled with four-node reduced-integration shell elements (type
S4R), whereas eight-node reduced-integration solid elements
(C3D8R) are used to simulate the surrounding medium, as shown
in Fig. 2. The mesh dimensions L and H are chosen equal to 1.5
and 3 cylinder diameters, respectively, following a short paramet-
ric study, and a total of 150 shell elements around the cylinder
half circumference have been found to be adequate to achieve
convergence of solution and accuracy of the numerical results.
A J2 flow (von Mises) plasticity model with isotropic hardening
is employed in the analysis, to simulate inelastic behavior of the
material of steel. The soil material is considered elastic in the ma-
jority of cases examined in this paper. In a few cases, soil material
is also described through an elastic-perfectly plastic Mohr–
Coulomb constitutive model, characterized by cohesion c, friction
angle /, elastic (Young’s) modulus E0 , and Poisson’s ratio . A
frictionless contact algorithm is employed for the interface
between the cylinder and the medium. Uniform external pressure
is applied around the cylinder, and the nonlinear pressure-
deflection (p  d) equilibrium path is traced using a Riks continu-
ation algorithm.
The sensitivity of cylindrical response and strength on the pres-
ence of initial imperfections are of particular importance in our
work. Two types of initial imperfections are considered in the
present study. The first type of imperfection is an initial gap
between the confining medium and the cylinder. The gap is intro-
duced in the model, assuming that the circular cavity of the me-
dium has a radius slightly larger than the circular cylinder radius,
and that the cylinder and the cavity are initially in contact at
h ¼ p (Fig. 3(a)) so that the maximum gap between the cylinder
and the medium occurs at h ¼ 0, and it is denoted as g. The sec-
ond type of imperfection is a small initial “out-of-roundness”
imperfection on the steel cylinder in the form of a small localized
displacement pattern at the vicinity of the h ¼ 0 location. It is an
imperfection of the shape of the buckling mode of the confined
cylinder (“single-lobe” mode). One way to impose this initial out-
of-roundness in steel cylinders is through the consideration of a
small downward vertical load applied at the h ¼ 0 location. After
the load is removed, and despite the elastic rebound of the steel
cylinder wall, the cylinder at this location contains a small
JANUARY 2014, Vol. 66 / 010801-3
 residual displacement d0 , which is considered as the initial out-of- form depicted in Fig. 3(a). The corresponding results are shown in
roundness amplitude, as shown in Fig. 3(b). Clearly, this type of Fig. 5; the cylinder is elastic with D=t ratio equal to 200 and the
method may not be suitable for elastic cylinders, due to the com- gap size g is less or equal to 2.7  10-3 times the cylinder radius
plete recovery of shape during the unloading step. Alternatively, R, i.e., less than 27% of the cylinder thickness. In particular, the
this out-of-roundness imperfection can be imposed considering an behavior under very low levels of external pressure is considered,
initial stress-free displacement pattern, in the form of a “single- as shown in Fig. 5(b); initially, the cylinder exhibits uniform con-
lobe at the vicinity of the h ¼ 0 location, chosen in the form of traction, until the pressure corresponding to pe is reached, i.e., the
the consecutive shapes of the perfect confined elastic cylinder elastic buckling pressure under unconfined conditions, calculated
under external pressure. This method of imposing initial out-of- from Eq. (2). At that pressure level, the cylinder buckles in an
roundness is suitable for both elastic and elastic-plastic (steel) oval shape [10] but, very quickly, it accommodates itself within
cylinders. the confinement boundary, and this is represented by the change
of slope in the pressure-displacement diagram, also shown in Fig.
5(b). Therefore, the cylinder is able to sustain significant further
3 Mechanical Behavior of Elastic Cylinders increase of external pressure, as represented by the increase of
Thin-walled rigidly confined elastic cylinders with D=t values pressure beyond the critical pressure level for unconfined condi-
between 100 and 300 are analyzed in this section using the finite tions (pe ). Under those confined conditions, the top part of the cyl-
element simulation presented in Sec. 2. The cylinder material is inder, i.e., the part corresponding to the maximum gap location,
elastic with modulus E and Poisson’s ratio  equal to 210,000 behaves similar to an arch subjected to uniform external pressure
MPa and 0.3, respectively, whereas a frictionless interface is con- and supported at the two “touchdown” points. This leads to buck-
sidered between the elastic cylinder and the nondeformable con- ling in the form of an inward single-lobe buckling mode, some-
finement medium. The cylinder capacity is compared with times referred to as “inversion buckling,” characterized by a limit
analytical expressions and numerical results in Refs. [9] and [11]. point on the pressure-deformation equilibrium path and unstable
The modulus of the confinement medium E0 has a value equal to response beyond the limit point represented by a rapid drop of
21,000 MPa (one-tenth of the modulus of the steel material) so pressure, as shown in Fig. 5(a). This “snap-through” behavior
that the confinement medium is practically nondeformable and means that the secondary (postbuckling) equilibrium path may not
may be considered as rigid. be reachable in a real pipe since the load is controlled by pressure.
The value of pressure at the limit point is referred to as maximum
pressure pmax . For the particular case of imperfection-free cylin-
3.1 Perfect Elastic Cylinders. Figure 4 shows the variation ders it is also referred to as critical pressure, denoted as pcr .
of maximum pressure pmax in terms of the diameter-to-thickness
ratio for rigidly confined cylinders. In this figure, the numerical
results (depicted with symbol ~) are compared with the analyti-
cal predictions pGL of Eq. (1). The comparison between numerical
results and predictions from Glock’s analytical solution is remark-
able, and this offers a very good verification of the validity of
Glock’s formula for the buckling pressure of imperfection-free
elastic confined cylinders in a stiff (nondeformable) medium. It is
noted that the buckling pressure pEM predicted by the closed-form
expression (4) for imperfection-free cylinders [11] offers very
good predictions as well.
The value of maximum pressure pmax is 20 to 48 times larger
than the value of the corresponding elastic buckling pressure pe
under unconfined conditions, expressed by Eq. (2). The large val-
ues of the pmax =pe ratio express quantitatively the very significant
effect of confinement on the buckling resistance. The structural
behavior of the externally pressurized cylinder and the effects of
confinement can be better understood if one follows the pressure-
displacement curve of the deforming cylinder, assuming a small
gap between the cylinder and the rigid confining medium, in the

Fig. 4 Comparison between numerical results and analytical Fig. 5 Structural response of rigidly confined elastic cylinders
predictions from Glock’s Eq. (1) and El-Sawy and Moore Eq. (4) in the presence of small gaps; (a) general response and (b) ini-
for the buckling pressure of rigidly confined cylinders tial response for very low-pressure values

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 Fig. 6 Consecutive deformation shapes of a tightly fitted elastic cylinder; configuration (2) corresponds to the ultimate pres-
sure stage

Consecutive deformation configurations of an imperfection-free
elastic cylinder with D=t equal to 200 under external pressure are
shown in Fig. 6(a), and the corresponding points on the pressure–
deflection path are depicted in Fig. 6(b). The numerical results
indicate that the maximum pressure pmax is equal to 1.95 MPa and
occurs at the stage where the local curvature at h ¼ 0 becomes
zero (i.e., when “inversion” of the cylinder wall occurs). From Eq.
(1), Glock’s prediction is equal to 1.99 MPa, very close to the nu-
merical value. Using Eqs. (A3) and (A4) of the Appendix from
the analytical solution of Glock [9] and conducting the appropri-
ate differentiation of the radial displacement function wðhÞ, the
local change of hoop curvature k0 at the buckle location h ¼ 0 is
calculated as follows:
 
w00 ð0Þ d p 2
k0 ¼ ¼  (8)
R2 2R2 /
Therefore, at the stage of maximum (critical) pressure, the change
of hoop curvature k0;cr can be calculated analytically substituting
Eqs. (A9) and (A10) into Eq. (8) to obtain:
1 1
k0;cr ¼ 1:033 ’ (9)
R R
Adding the value of Eq. (9) to the initial hoop curvature (equal to
1=R), the curvature of the deformed configuration at the stage of
buckling is readily computed equal to zero. This result from
Glock’s solution implies that the maximum pressure occurs at the
stage where the local curvature at the h ¼ 0 location becomes
zero, i.e., the cylinder becomes locally flat and shows a very good
correlation with the numerical results.
Table 1 depicts the values of maximum pressure, as well as
hoop stress, inward radial displacement at the critical location,
and the size of the detachment zone at buckling stage, obtained by
both numerical analysis and Glock’s analytical solution. The
value of the nominal hoop stress rnom , corresponding to the fol-
lowing formula:
pD
rnom ¼ (10)
2t
from elementary mechanics of materials, is of particular interest.
Furthermore, stresses, ra and rb refer to the membrane and bend-
ing stress, respectively, and in Table 1 they are both normalized
by the value of rnom at buckling, i.e., considering p ¼ pmax in Eq.
(10). In general, a fairly good comparison has been obtained
between the numerical results and the analytical solution for elas-
tic cylinders provided in Ref. [9].
An important observation refers to the magnitude of the hoop
stresses. The above results demonstrate that Eq. (10) may not be a
reliable formula for computing the hoop stress on the pressurized
cylinder at the prebuckling stage. In addition, although the value
of membrane stress ra is comparable with the value of rnom , the
value of rb is significantly higher, implying a substantial bending
deformation before buckling. It is also noted that the above results
assume elastic behavior of the cylinder material. Therefore, it is
expected that steel cylinders will have a reduced strength due to
early yielding caused by the development of significant bending
stress rb .

Table 1 Comparison between analytical results [9] and numerical results for rigidly confined elastic cylinders

D/t ¼ 100 D/t ¼ 200 D/t ¼ 300

Cylinder Analytical [9] FEM (present) Analytical [9] FEM (present) Analytical [9] FEM (present)

pmax (MPa) 9.187 9.066 1.999 1.948 0.819 0.788

dcr/R 0.04563 0.04598 0.0262 0.0255 0.0189 0.0211
/cr (rad) 0.4669 0.4674 0.3539 0.3591 0.3009 0.2952
kcr 1.033 1.127 1.033 1.087 1.033 1.144
rnom (MPa) 453.3 — 194.8 — 118.2 —
ra/rnom 1.17 1.20 1.18 1.22 1.20 1.28
rb/rnom 5.09 5.78 5.93 6.47 6.51 8.44

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 3.2 Imperfection Sensitivity in Elastic Cylinders. The nu-
merical results obtained for perfect elastic cylinders indicate a
substantial drop of pressure in the equilibrium path beyond the
critical pressure point, which is a severe indication of imperfec-
tion sensitivity. In the present study, two types of initial imperfec-
tions are considered, namely initial gap between the cavity and
the outer surface of the cylinder and initial out-of-roundness in the
form of a localized inward deformation at h ¼ 0.
The numerical results of Fig. 5 may offer a first indication of
imperfection sensitivity in the presence of an initial gap between
the pressurized cylinder and the confining medium; a situation
referred to as loosely fitted cylinder. The results refer to elastic
cylinders and indicate a significant effect of the gap on the maxi-
mum pressure carried out by the elastic cylinder. In particular, a
gap size equal to only 6.7% of the cylinder thickness is responsi-
ble for a 10.9% reduction of maximum pressure with respect to
the maximum pressure that an imperfection-free cylinder can
sustain.
In the case of elastic cylinders, the initial out-of-roundness
imperfection is imposed assuming a stress-free initial configura-
tion that follows the buckled shapes, as depicted in Fig. 6(a). Note
that the numerical results for g=R ¼ 5:4  103 (symbol n) are in
very good agreement with the empirical Eq. (4) proposed by
El-Sawy and Moore [11]. Furthermore, Fig. 7 depicts the
pressure-displacement curves of an elastic cylinder with D=t ratio
equal to 200 and demonstrates the imperfection sensitivity of the
cylinder response. The values of initial out-of-roundness ampli-
tude (d0 =R) corresponds to the initial values of the pressure-
displacement curves on the horizontal axis of the graph. Figure
8(a) and Fig. 8(b) show the sensitivity of maximum pressure value
on the amplitude of both initial imperfections.
The above sensitivity on initial imperfections can be expressed
in terms of the so-called “imperfection reduction factor” a, some-
times referred to as “knock-down” factor, also adopted in Refs.
[32,33] for the buckling load of imperfect elastic shells so that Fig. 8 Buckling pressure of imperfect elastic cylinders over
the buckling pressure of the corresponding perfect elastic
pmax ¼ apcr (11) cylinders, confined within a rigid medium; (a) effects of initial
out-of-roundness and (b) effects of initial gap
For the purposes of the present study, the reduction factor a is
assumed in the following form:
of the imperfection sensitivity on the D=t value. Based on those
C results, this imperfection parameter is considered in the following
a¼ m (12) form:
D
 s ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi
where D is an imperfection parameter that represents the size of d0 þ Kg D
the initial imperfection, considering both out-of-roundness and D¼ (13)
R t
gap, and C; m; K are constant coefficients to be determined from
the numerical results. The results in Fig. 8 indicate a dependency
In Eq. (13), coefficient K expresses the relative influence of the
two forms of imperfections (gap and out-of-roundness) on the ulti-
mate pressure pmax . From the numerical results of Fig. 8, a value
equal to 3 is obtained for this coefficient (K ¼ 3). Upon determin-
ing the value of K, a standard curve fitting technique is employed;
the values of C and m are calculated equal to 0.15 and 0.7, respec-
tively, so that the elastic reduction factor becomes

0:15 0:15
a¼ ¼" (14)
D 0:7  sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 ffi#0:7
d0 þ 3g D
R t

The results in Ref. [31] show that imperfection reduction factor

Fig. 7 Structural response of rigidly confined elastic cylinders
in the presence of small initial out-of-roundness
predicted through Eq. (14) can provide lower-bound predictions
for the ultimate pressure of externally pressurized elastic cylinders
in the presence of initial imperfections.
Alternatively, the reduction of maximum pressure due to the
presence of initial out-of-roundness imperfections in externally
pressurized elastic cylinders confined within a rigid cavity can be
also expressed with respect to the imperfection amplitude by the
following expression:

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Fig. 9 Effects of small initial out-of-roundness imperfection
amplitudes on the buckling pressure of imperfect elastic cylin-
ders; FEM results and predictions from the imperfection sensi-
tivity formula of Eq. (15)
Fig. 10 Response of tightly fitted steel cylinders (g/R 5 0),
embedded in a rigid confinement medium for different values of
initial out-of-roundness
Fig. 11 Postbuckling shapes of initially “perfect” steel cylinders with elastic-plastic material; configuration (2) corresponds to
the ultimate pressure stage
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 n
pmax d0
¼1C (15)
pcr t
where pcr is the buckling pressure of the corresponding ‘‘perfect”
cylinder (referred to as “critical pressure”), C is a positive con-
stant that depends on the D=t ratio, and exponent n expresses the
rate of decay. This equation is considered in the same form as the
sensitivity imperfection formula from general postbuckling theory
of elastic systems [35,36]. Figure 9 presents an attempt to fit the
above formula (15) with the finite element results. It is interesting
to note that for the range of small values of imperfection ampli-
tude, the value of 2/3 on the exponent n results in good predictions
of the maximum pressure of imperfect cylinders.
4 Mechanical Behavior of Steel Cylinders
Using the above numerical models, the structural stability of
externally pressurized confined steel cylinders is examined. The
values of pressure p are normalized by the yield pressure
py ¼ ð2  1:13Þry t=D, computed by Eq. (6), whereas the displace-
ment d of point A at h ¼ 0 is normalized by the cylinder radius R.
4.1 Buckling of Steel Cylinders Surrounded by a Rigid
Medium. The response of a thin-walled metal cylinder with
D=t ¼200 is shown in Fig. 10 for initial out-of-roundness imper-
fection and assuming a frictionless interface between the cylinder
and the confinement medium. The values of initial out-of-round-
ness amplitude (d0 =R) correspond to the starting values of the
pressure-displacement curves on the horizontal axis of the graph.
The material of the cylinder is steel, with yield stress ry and ulti-
mate stress ru equal to 313 MPa and 492 MPa, respectively,
whereas postyield hardening is zero up to nominal strain equal to
1.5%. A zero gap between the cylinder and the medium and a con-
finement medium modulus E0 equal to 10% of E are assumed
(E0 ¼ 21,000 MPa). The value of E0 corresponds to practically
rigid confinement (e.g., concrete encasement). Numerical results
with higher values of E0 indicated no further influence on the
response. The equilibrium curves in Fig. 10 represent the nonlin-
ear relationship between the applied pressure and the downward
displacement of the cylinder point at h ¼ 0. The results demon-
strate that the value of the ultimate pressure pmax is substantially
smaller than the yield pressure py , even for negligible initial
imperfection.
Comparison between the numerical results from the elastic case
(Fig. 6) and those shown in Fig. 11 for steel cylinders shows that,
JANUARY 2014, Vol. 66 / 010801-7
 in steel cylinders, the ultimate pressure capacity pmax of steel cyl-
inders occurs at a lower level of pressure because of the signifi-
cant effect of inelastic material behavior on the pressure capacity
of the cylinder. Furthermore, the finite element results indicate
that the maximum pressure of elastic-plastic (steel) cylinders
occurs very soon after first yielding, and corresponds to a defor-
mation stage before “flattening” of the cylinder wall occurs at the
h ¼ 0 location. Figure 11(a) depicts the successive deformed con-
figurations of the steel cylinder. A comparison between deformed
shapes from elastic and inelastic cylinder behavior in Fig. 6(a)
and Fig. 11(a) shows that the postbuckling shape of inelastic cyl-
inders is characterized by more abrupt changes of local curvature
at the symmetry point A and the touchdown points B and B0
(Fig. 1), and this is attributed to the concentration of plastic defor-
mation at those points and the formation of plastic hinges. In addi-
tion, the buckled portion of the cylinder extends to a shorter
circumferential area than in the case of elastic cylinders.
Upon reaching the maximum pressure pmax , the cylinder behav- Fig. 12 Effects of initial out-of-roundness and initial gap on
ior becomes unstable, with significant drop of pressure capacity, the external pressure response of a confined steel cylinder em-
bedded in a rigid confinement medium (E 0 /E 5 1021 , D/t 5 200)
and this is responsible for a severe sensitivity of the pmax value on
the presence of initial imperfections. The numerical results in
Fig. 10 for the cylinder under consideration show that initial out-
of-roundness of amplitude less than 1% of the cylinder radius
result in a 60% reduction of the ultimate pressure pmax with respect
to the maximum pressure of the imperfection-free cylinder. The
unstable postbuckling behavior is due to the development of a
plastic collapse mechanism with one stationary plastic hinge at
symmetry point A and two moving hinges at the two touchdown
points B and B’. Using a simple kinematic model [30], the follow-
ing closed-form expression describing this mechanism has been
obtained:

p t 4
¼    2 (16)
py D d d
6 
R R

which verifies the unstable behavior beyond the maximum pres-

sure, leading to plastic collapse of the pressurized cylinder. A
more detailed discussion on the plastic collapse mechanism is
offered in Ref. [28].
The presence of a small gap between the cylinder and the con-
finement medium may also have significant effect on the maxi-
mum pressure, as shown in Fig. 12. The cylinder has a D=t ratio
equal to 200 and a steel material with yield stress ry equal to 313
MPa. The gap size, denoted as g, is the maximum distance
between the cylinder and the cavity inner surface at h ¼ 0, and it
is normalized by the cylinder radius R. The numerical results in
Fig. 12, compared with the corresponding results of Fig. 10, indi-
cate that in the presence of a rather small gap size equal to 0.27%
of the cylinder radius R (or equivalently equal to 27% of the cylin-
der thickness) and for zero initial out-of-roundness (d0 =R ¼ 0),
the ultimate pressure capacity is reduced by 40%. The maximum
pressure is further decreased in the presence of initial out-of-
roundness imperfections (d0 =R). The effects of initial gap (g=R)
and out-of-roundness (d0 =R) imperfections on the maximum pres-
sure (pmax =py ) are summarized in Fig. 13 for a cylinder with
D=t ¼200 and ry ¼313 MPa. The finite element results indicate
that for values of initial out-of-roundness d0 greater than 3.5% of
the cylinder radius R, the value of maximum pressure pmax is inde-
pendent of the value of the initial gap size g.
One should note that the overall behavior of the pressurized
steel cylinder is similar to the one described in the Sec. 3 for elas-
tic cylinders. The cylinder is initially contracted due to external
pressure and “buckles” in an oval form at p=py ¼0.016, which
corresponds to the critical buckling pressure pe for elastic uncon-
fined cylinders, calculated from Eq. (2). Nevertheless, the cylinder
accommodates itself within the rigid cavity, allowing for signifi-
cant further increase of external pressure, and behaving similar to
an arch under external pressure that leads to “inversion buckling”
Fig. 13 Effects of initial out-of-roundness and initial gap (g/R)
on the maximum pressure sustained by a confined steel
cylinder embedded in a rigid confinement medium (E 0 /E 5 1021 ,
D/t 5 200)
at a pressure equal to pmax and unstable response beyond the limit
point. In the case of steel cylinders, the maximum pressure occurs
at a stage somewhat prior to the flattened configuration because of
the presence of plastic deformation, as shown in Fig. 11(a).
The value of maximum external pressure that the cylinder can
sustain depends on the value of the D=t ratio. Figure 14 shows the
variation of ultimate pressure pmax with respect to initial out-of-
roundness for three values of D=t ratio (D=t ¼ 100, 150, 200) and
for zero gap between the cylinder and the medium (g=R ¼ 0). The
numerical results of Fig. 14 indicate similar imperfection sensitiv-
ity for all three cases. It is also noted that the ultimate pressure
pmax for the thicker cylinder (D=t ¼ 100) is higher than the ulti-
mate pressure of the thin-walled cylinder (D=t ¼ 200). On the
other hand, the ultimate pressure pmax for the thin-walled cylinder
is very low, significantly lower than the plastic pressure of the cyl-
inder py , even in the absence of initial imperfections.
For the purposes of describing buckling of confined cylinders in
the inelastic range in a simple and efficient manner, the so-called
“shell slenderness” parameter is adopted, defined as follows:
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Rpl
k¼ (17)
Rcr
where Rpl represents the load that causes full-plastic failure and
Rcr the load corresponding to the elastic buckling condition of the

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 Fig. 14 Effects of initial out-of-roundness and D/t ratio on the
maximum pressure sustained by a confined steel cylinder em-
bedded in a rigid confinement medium (E 0 /E 5 1021 , g/R 5 0)
perfect structure. The above definition is general and refers to any
type of loading. In the present case, the fully plastic pressure py of
Eq. (6) can be used for Rpl , whereas Glock’s critical pressure pGL
in Eq. (1) offers a very good analytical expression for the critical
pressure Rcr so that the slenderness parameter in Eq. (17) can be
written as follows:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffi   ffi
py 2:26ry ð1   2 Þ D 1:2
k¼ ¼ (18)
pGL E t
In the case of perfect elastic cylinders (g ¼ d0 ¼ 0), the numer-
ical results in Fig. 4 show that the ultimate pressure pmax is equal
to the one predicted by Eq. (1), i.e., equal to pGL . Therefore, com-
bining Eqs. (1) and (18), one can write
pmax 1
¼ 2 (19)
py k pmax
Neglecting strain hardening effects, the value of py cannot be
exceeded, i.e., pmax  py . Therefore, it would be tempting to argue
that for steel cylinders with slenderness values k less than unity,
the maximum pressure pmax would be equal to py , whereas Eq.
(19) would express the maximum pressure of steel cylinders with
slenderness values k greater than unity.
The validity of the above argument is examined using the pres-
ent numerical tools, and the corresponding results are depicted in
Fig. 15, showing the variation of ultimate pressure pmax in terms
of k. The numerical results in Fig. 15 do not support the above
argument; imperfection-free cylinders (g ¼ d0 ¼ 0) within a stiff
confinement medium for three values of yield stress ry (235 MPa,
313 MPa and 566 MPa, respectively) show that for k values less
than 2.2, the buckling pressure pmax deviate significantly from Eq.
(19). On the other hand, for k values greater than 2.2, the buckling
pressure pmax can be expressed quite accurately by Eq. (19), which
implies that buckling occurs in the elastic range. In other words,
the value of 2.2, denoted by kp , defines the transition between
elastic and inelastic buckling regime.
For slenderness values k less than kp , i.e., for buckling in the
inelastic range, the numerical results fall well below Eq. (19). In
particular, the value of pmax approaches the plastic pressure py for
rather small values of k, equal to about 0.25. This is a characteris-
tic slenderness value denoted as k0 , and referred to as “squash
slenderness.”
Based on the above results, it is possible to develop a buckling
curve that expresses the maximum pressure pmax in terms of the
slenderness value k of the cylinder. This curve should consider
the general case of imperfect cylinders so that it is used for design
Fig. 15 Variation of maximum pressure pmax steel cylinders
with no imperfections (g/R 5 0,d0 /R 5 0), embedded in a rigid
confinement medium with respect to the slenderness parameter
k defined in Eq. (18)
purposes. More specifically, taking into account the definition of
the imperfection reduction factor a in Eq. (11), one can write the
following equation:
pmax a
¼ 2 (20)
py k
which is valid for the elastic buckling range, i.e., for
k  kp ¼ 2:2. The value of the imperfection reduction factor a
can be computed from Eq. (14). For values of k less than the
plastic limit slenderness (kp ¼ 2.2), buckling is associated with
material behavior in the inelastic range. In the absence of a
closed-form analytical expression for the buckling pressure in the
inelastic regime, similar to the elastic buckling Eq. (1), the follow-
ing expression, introduced in Refs. [32,33], is adopted:
 
k  k0 g
¼1b (21)
py kp  k0
where b is constant, g depends on imperfection parameter D, and
slenderness k0 is the squash slenderness. Equation (21) is valid for
intermediate values of cylinder slenderness k0  k  kp . Finally,
for slenderness values less than k0 , the cylinder collapses due to
the development of excessive plastic deformation so that, neglect-
ing strain hardening, one can write
pmax
¼1 (22)
py
It is important to note that the value of b in Eq. (21) is determined
equating expressions (20) and (21) for k ¼ kp , and one readily
obtains
a
b¼1 (23)
k2p
Furthermore, the numerical results indicate a dependence of g on
the initial imperfection, which can be expressed as follows:
g ¼ 0:6  3D; g  0:3 (24)
Figure 16 shows the predictions of the above design methodology
for imperfect steel cylinders against the numerical finite element
results. The comparisons indicate that the proposed methodology
offers an efficient approach for predicting the ultimate pressure of
confined cylinders in both the elastic and the inelastic range. The

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 Table 2 Geometric and material characteristics of test
specimens

Test #1 Test #2 Test #3 Test #4

D/t ratio 66.7 66.7 133.3 142.8

Out-of-roundness (d0 =R) 0.009 0.009 0.005 0.007
Initial gap (g=R) 0.0002 0.0002 0.00067 0.00067
Yield strength (ry ) (MPa) 304 304 451 746

Table 3 Comparison of critical pressure between experimen-

tal, numerical, and analytical results

Maximum pressure

Test #1 Test #2 Test #3 Test #4

Fig. 16 Variation of maximum pressure pmax steel cylinders Experimental 6.1 MPa 6.7 MPa 2.9 MPa 2.6 MPa
embedded in a rigid confinement medium with respect to the Numerical (FEM) 6.14 MPa 6.14 MPa 2.84 MPa 2.88 MPa
slenderness parameter k defined in Eq. (18); finite element Design methodology 5.47 MPa 5.47 MPa 2.70 MPa 2.57 MPa
results and predictions of Eqs. (20), (21), and (22) Montel Eq. (5) 5.74 MPa 5.74 MPa 2.75 MPa 2.42 MPa

(5) can provide reliable, yet somewhat conservative, estimates of

the maximum pressure sustained by a cylinder encased in a stiff
boundary, within a good level of accuracy, even beyond the
applicability ranges specified in the publication of Montel [17].
Therefore, the formula can be used for the design of buried pipe-
lines encased in concrete or other cylinders confined within a stiff
medium.
A series of tests on small- and large-scale specimens of steel
pipes confined in concrete have been conducted by Borot [19],
also reported by Montel [17] and Taras and Greiner [22]. The
main geometric and material properties for each test specimen are
reported in Table 2. For Test No. 4 with steel yield strength of
746 MPa, the value of ry in Eq. (5) was assumed equal to
500 MPa, as proposed by Montel, because the real value of yield
stress exceeds the applicability range of the equation. The values
of critical pressure are summarized and compared in Table 3. In
general, there exists a good comparison between experimental
data, numerical results, and analytical predictions.

4.2 Steel Cylinders Surrounded by Deformable

Fig. 17 Comparison between numerical results and analytical
predictions from Montel’s simplified Eq. (5) [17]
methodology is fully compatible with the general methodology
for shell buckling design [32,33] and could be used for design
purposes.
The predictions of Eq. (5), proposed by Montel [17], are com-
pared with the present finite element results in Fig. 17. The com-
parison shows that, despite its simplicity, the empirical formula
Medium. The results presented in Sec. 4.1 refer exclusively to
the case of steel cylinders enclosed within a nondeformable
(rigid) cavity, considering an elastic confinement medium with
high values of modulus E0 . However, quite often in buried pipe-
line applications, the steel cylinder is embedded in a soft me-
dium, which should be modeled as a deformable cavity. Previous
numerical results in Refs. [30] and [31] have indicated that the
modulus E0 of the surrounding elastic medium has a significant
effect on the value of pressure capacity. In the present section,
using the finite element tools, the influence of embedment flexi-
bility on the mechanical response of externally pressurized
cylinders is examined. Motivated by the buckling problem of
externally pressurized buried pipelines, the top boundary of the
finite element model is free, whereas the nodes on the three other
boundaries are fixed.
Figure 18 shows the response of a steel cylinder (ry ¼313 MPa,
D=t ¼200) in terms of the pressure-deformation curves for differ-
ent values of the confining medium modulus E0 , with no imperfec-
tions (d0 ¼ g ¼ 0). In this analysis, the gravity load of the
surrounding medium is not considered. The main observation
from those results is the significant reduction of the pmax value
with decreasing values of E0 . Furthermore, with decreasing values
of E0 , the response becomes smoother, and it characterized by a
“plateau” on the equilibrium path about the maximum pressure.
The effects of the E0 value are shown in Figs. 19(a) and 19(b),
which depict the variation of the ultimate pressure capacity with

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Fig. 18 Structural response of perfect (g/R 5 0, d0 /R 5 0) steel
cylinders (D/t 5 200) for different values of confinement me-
dium modulus (E 0 /E); pressure versus deformation equilibrium
paths
Fig. 19 Effects of initial out-of-roundness and stiffness of con-
finement medium (E 0 /E) on the maximum pressure sustained
by a confined steel cylinder (g/R 5 0, D/t 5 200)
respect to the relative stiffness of the medium E0 =E for imperfect
steel cylinders (ry ¼313 MPa, D=t ¼200). The results indicate
that the response is imperfection sensitive, which becomes less
pronounced with increased flexibility of the confining medium.
Comparison between the results from Fig. 19(a) and Fig. 19(b)
indicate that the presence of gap affects the value of maximum
pressure but this effect becomes less important increasing the flex-
ibility of the surrounding medium.
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Fig. 20 Comparison between elastic and steel cylinders
(D/t 5 200) with respect to the E 0 /E value for perfect cylinders
(d0 /R 5 g/R 5 0)
Figure 20 shows the drop of the pmax value with decreasing val-
ues of E0 for an elastic cylinder and a steel cylinder with
D=t ¼200. It is interesting to note that for E0 =E  3  104 , the
two curves coincide, indicating that buckling of steel cylinders
with D=t ¼200 in a highly deformable medium occurs in the elas-
tic range. In other words, the effects of confinement are signifi-
cantly reduced. The effect of E0 =E in the present design
methodology can be taken into account introducing an appropriate
reduction factor f [31] expressing the ratio of the maximum pres-
sure pmax in a deformable medium over pmax;1 , which is the maxi-
mum pressure of the cylinder in a rigid confinement (E0 ! 1):
pmax
f ¼ (25)
pmax;1
Numerical results in Ref. [31] have shown that this factor is inde-
pendent on the value of the D=t ratio. Based on the numerical
results, the following function is defined:

0:05x2 þ 0:1x þ 0:95 if 1  x  5
f ðxÞ ¼ (26)
1 if x  1
where x is the modulus ratio parameter,
 0
E
x ¼  log (27)
E
which can be used for an efficient description of the effects of me-
dium deformability on the ultimate pressure.
The previous results have been obtained without considering
gravity of the surrounding medium. In the following, the effects
of gravity on the structural response of the cylinder are examined.
Motivated by the case of buried pipelines, soil conditions are con-
sidered for the surrounding medium. Figures 21(a) and 21(b)
show the pressure-displacements response of a steel cylinder with
D=t ¼ 200, embedded in an elastic medium of density equal to 20
kN/m3 and Young’s modulus ranging from 25 to 100 MPa, which
is typical for clays [37]. In this analysis, gravity of the cylinder/
soil system is considered as a first step, and subsequently, external
pressure has been applied on the outer surface of the cylinder. The
results in Fig. 21(a) refer to  ¼ 0:3 and indicate a high value of
pmax at small values of E0 . This observation is more pronounced in
Fig. 21(b), which refers to  ¼ 0:49, a nearly incompressible me-
dium. This can be explained if the detachment w of the cylinder
from the surrounding medium replaces the displacement d of the
cylinder in the horizontal axis. The corresponding graphs are
shown in Figs. 22(a) and 22(b) for low values of E0 . Due to grav-
ity loading, the cylinder remains in contact with the medium up to
a significant level of pressure and buckling is prevented. Immedi-
ately after detachment, buckling occurs quite abruptly, associated
with a rapid drop of pressure. This sudden collapse is more pro-
nounced in the case of a nearly incompressible medium
JANUARY 2014, Vol. 66 / 010801-11
 Fig. 21 Structural response of perfect steel cylinders for differ-
ent values of confinement medium modulus; pressure versus
displacement (d) equilibrium paths for (a) m 5 0.3 and (b) m 5 0.49
ð ¼ 0:49Þ. In the case of a high value of E0 , detachment occurs at
relatively low pressure levels and the behavior has similarities
with the one described in Sec. 3 for rigid boundary.
Finally, the behavior of a steel cylinder with D=t ¼ 200, em-
bedded in a deformable elastic-plastic medium is examined. The
medium is considered a soft-to-firm clay, which is modeled
through a Mohr–Coulomb inelastic material model, with cohesion
c ¼ 50 kPa, friction angle u ¼ 0 deg, Young’s modulus
E0 ¼ 25 MPa, and Poisson’s ratio  ¼ 0.49. The effects of gravity
have been taken into account, as an initial loading step. Figure
23(a) shows the structural response of the steel cylinder in terms
of the pressure-displacement curve for the elastic-plastic medium,
compared with the corresponding curve assuming elastic medium.
The two curves practically coincide. They slightly deviate only af-
ter significant deformation, well into the postbuckling range. The
coincidence of the two curves is more pronounced when stiffer
soil properties are employed. Figure 23(b) shows the distribution
of plastic deformation in the deformable medium at a displace-
ment value of 30 mm ðd=R ¼ 0:04Þ, well beyond the buckling
stage. Plastic deformation occurs at the touchdown points B and
B0 (see Fig. 1), where the pressurized cylindrical arch is sup-
ported. It is interesting to note that at the stage where buckling
occurs, no plastic deformation is detected within the medium.
5 A Note on Shrink Buckling of Cylinders
The single-lobe buckling mode of a thin-walled cylinder or ring
in a cavity can be obtained with two types of loading. The first
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Fig. 22 Structural response of perfect steel cylinders for differ-
ent values of confinement medium modulus; pressure versus
detachment (w ) equilibrium paths for (a) m 5 0.3 and (b) m 5 0.49
type of loading is external pressure on the cylinder outer surface,
sometimes referred to as “hydrostatic pressure” problem. Alterna-
tively, this buckling mode may be obtained under thermal loading,
where the cavity prevents the extension of the encased cylinder.
Similar to thermal loading, shrink buckling may also occur when
the outer cavity contracts (shrinks), moving inwards and applying
external pressure to the encased cylinder, forcing it to buckle. In
several practical applications, sleeving the inside of cylinders can
lead to shrink buckling as well. In all those cases, the resultant
buckling is often referred to as shrink buckling, as opposed to
“hydrostatic buckling” presented in Secs. 3 and 4.
Early works on this subject have been conducted by Refs. [5],
[6], and [7], pinpointing the importance of initial imperfections on
the maximum compression. Notable analytical contributions on
the problem of shrink buckling have been reported in Refs.
[38–41], whereas Sun et al. [42] presented a thorough experimen-
tal investigation of the problem, using a simple setup of com-
pressed hemicircular very thin-walled rings (D=t 400) within a
rigid cavity, focusing on the effects of initial imperfections.
The shrink buckling problem has several similarities but it is
not the same as the hydrostatic buckling problem. The main dif-
ference is that in shrink buckling under thermal loading or sleev-
ing, the buckled part of the cylinder is laterally free, whereas in
hydrostatic buckling, pressure load is always present, applied on
the buckled portion of the cylinder in the postbuckling stage. To
understand the consequences of this difference on the mechanical
behavior and strength of the loaded cylinder, a series of numerical
simulations are conducted in the course of the present study,
Transactions of the ASME

Fig. 23 (a) Effect of elastic-plastic medium on the structural
response of confined steel cylinder, (b) distribution of equiva-
lent plastic strain on the medium
simulating the experimental setup of Sun et al. [42], shown in Fig.
24(a). It consists of a thin-walled cylindrical specimen encased
within a rigid hemicircular cavity, compressed symmetrically at
points B and B0 . A small imperfection is assumed in the central
point A in the form of an inward localized displacement.
The numerical model employed for simulating this experiment
is shown in Fig. 24(b) and it is very similar to the one described in
Sec. 2; shell elements and solid elements are used to model the
steel cylinder and the rigid cavity, respectively. The material of
the cavity is considered isotropic elastic with Young’s modulus
E0 ¼ 21,000 MPa and Poisson’s ratio  ¼ 0.30, corresponding to
rigid confinement conditions. Numerical results are obtained for
the case of an elastic and a steel cylinder. Both cylinders have a
D=t ratio equal to 200, and the steel material of the second cylin-
der has a yield stress equal to 313 MPa, similar to the material
used extensively in Sec. 4. The numerical results are presented in
Fig. 25, showing the maximum (buckling) acting stress at points
B and B’ in terms of the size of initial imperfection. Both curves
are decreasing functions of the imperfection amplitude. The acting
stress r is equal to the force F applied at points B and B0 divided
by the cross-sectional area of the ring model. For value of initial
imperfection approaching zero, the curve for the elastic cylinder
goes asymptotically to infinity. This implies the absence of buck-
ling for a geometrically perfect system, a conclusion also reported
in early analytical works [40], as well as in the tests of Sun et al.
[42]. The steel cylinder has a similar behavior, but the buckling
stress is significantly reduced with respect to the corresponding
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Fig. 24 (a) Schematic representation of test setup [42]; (b)
finite element model of cylinder-medium system
Fig. 25 Maximum acting stress for rigidly confined elastic and
steel cylinders
stress of the elastic cylinder. In addition, for small values of
imperfection amplitude (d0 =t  0:4), the steel ring fails due to
yielding at a stress level equal to the yield stress of the material ry
under plane strain conditions.
The absence of buckling in an imperfection-free cylinder con-
stitutes the main difference between the shrink buckling and the
hydrostatic buckling problem. As noted, this is attributed to the
fact that hydrostatic pressure is always applied on the postbuckled
portion of the cylinder, whereas external loading is released from
the buckled portion in the case of shrink buckling.
6 Conclusions
The behavior of thin-walled cylinders, surrounded by an elastic
medium, is examined in terms of their structural stability under
uniform external pressure using a nonlinear two-dimensional fi-
nite element model. Numerical results for the ultimate pressure of
cylinders of elastic material are found to be in very close
JANUARY 2014, Vol. 66 / 010801-13
    2
agreement with available closed-form analytical predictions. d 6pR3 / 4 /
Confined thin-walled steel cylinders (100  D=t  300) are also ¼ þ10 (A5)
R EI p p
analyzed under external pressure. 2 sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi3
The numerical results show a significant sensitivity of the ulti-     5
pR3 p 24 1 80 EI p 5
mate pressure in terms of initial imperfections, in the form of both ¼ 16 16  (A6)
out-of-roundness of the cylinder cross section and the presence of EI / 6 3 EAR2 /
initial gap between the cylinder and the surrounding medium. It is  
also demonstrated that reduction of the medium modulus results 5 EI p 2
N¼ (A7)
in a substantial reduction of the pressure capacity of the cylinder. 3 R2 /
The pressure-deflection equilibrium paths indicate a rapid drop of
pressure capacity after reaching the maximum pressure level, and Minimization of pressure in terms of angle /, results in final
the postbuckling configuration is characterized by a three-hinge closed-form expressions for the critical pressure pGL , the corre-
plastic collapse mechanism. A slenderness shell parameter is also sponding angle /cr , and the corresponding amplitude of the buck-
introduced, which enables the presentation of maximum pressure ling shape:
in the inelastic range in a simple and efficient manner. The simpli-
fied formula proposed in Ref. [17] is found to be quite close to the  2=5
pGL R3 EAR2
present numerical results and could be used for the prediction of ¼ 0:969 (A8)
buckling pressure of buried pipelines and other rigidly encased EI EI
steel cylinders. Furthermore, a good comparison with limited    1=5
p EAR2
available test data is also shown. ¼ 0:856 (A9)
The corresponding problem of shrink buckling has also been / cr EI
examined, through a rigorous simulation of experiments reported    
d EI 2=5
elsewhere, and the main differences with the hydrostatic buckling ¼ 2:819 (A10)
problem have been identified. R cr EAR2
Finally, it should be noticed that according to several design
recommendations, the external pressure capacity of steel pipelines For plane-strain conditions, Eq. (A8) can be written in the form of
encased in a rigid cavity (e.g., concrete encasement) was taken Eq. (1).
equal to the nominal pressure that causes yielding of the cylinder,
assuming that the rigid confinement prevents instability in the
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