摘要：Shell buckling problems belong to the class of geometrically nonlinear behavior, and may be coupled with material nonlinearity of the shell. There are many general-purpose finite element programs that perform geometric and material nonlinear analysis of shells; however, this does not mean that a user can feed data and collect reliable results without a full understanding of the physics of the problem. This paper discusses the theories involved in the explanation and classification of phenomena, and in the prediction of results. Next, those approaches are considered in the practical analysis of one shell form, namely thin-walled steel tanks used to store oil. Results have been obtained with the general-purpose package ABAQUS, and they tend to show that their interpretation requires the use of Koiter’s theory in order to make sense of what is obtained. Some thoughts on possible ways to implement Croll’s lower bound reduced energy approach in practice are given.
