Nonlinear deformation and stability of elliptic cylindrical shells under torsion and bending

The problem of nonlinear deformation and buckling of noncircular cylindrical shells under combined loading is solved by the variational finite-element method in the displacement formulation. A numerical algorithm for solving the problem is proposed. Stability of cylindrical shells with an elliptic cross-sectional contour under a combined action of torsion and bending is analyzed. The effect of cross-sectional ellipticity and nonlinear prebuckling deformation on the critical loads and buckling mode is studied.