Numerical and Experimental Investigation of the Behavior of Cylindrical Shells

The analysis of thin shell structures has generally been purely carried out based on a theoretical basis, usually by superposing the membrane and bending behavior. It is of great importance to carry out experimental tests to validate the numerical models. In this paper, a series of tests have been conducted on cylindrical shell models with different types of boundary conditions and wall thicknesses under the effect of concentrated progressive loads. The experimental results obtained are compared to those derived numerically. A new flat shell element called ACM-Q4SBE1composed of strain-based quadrilateral membrane element Q4SBE1and the standard plate bending element ACM is used for the numerical analysis, in addition to the S4R ABAQUS element. The results obtained confirm the effectiveness and superiority of the flat shell approach for the linear analysis of shell structures.