Elasto-plastic buckling behaviour of aluminium alloy single-layer cylindrical reticulated shells with gusset joints

Abstract This study investigates the elasto-plastic buckling behaviour of aluminium alloy cylindrical reticulated shells with gusset joints by means of numerical analysis. First, a numerical model considering joint semi-rigidity is established. A comparison of the linear and non-linear buckling behaviour of semi-rigid jointed and rigid jointed shells, reveals that joint semi-rigidity can reduce the buckling capacity of cylindrical reticulated shells severely. This should be considered in the design process. In addition, the support condition of cylindrical reticulated shells also has an impact on their buckling behaviour. Second, a parametric analysis scheme is proposed to investigate the influence of the rise-to-span ratios, length-to-span ratios, span-to-thickness ratios, loading conditions, and initial geometric imperfections on the elasto-plastic buckling behaviour of aluminium alloy cylindrical reticulated shells with gusset joints. It is observed that the elasto-plastic behaviour is less sensitive to the rise-to-span ratios, whereas it is sensitive to the other parameters. Finally, to facilitate practical engineering, formulae to estimate the elasto-plastic buckling capacity of aluminium alloy cylindrical reticulated shells are derived based on 17,280 numerical analysis results. The regression performance of the formulae with respect to the numerical results is effective. Hence, the time-consuming elasto-plastic analysis can be circumvented in the design process.