Eigenvalue analysis of cylindrically curved panels under compressive stresses – Extension of rules from EN 1993-1-5

A numerical study on the elastic buckling behaviour of simply supported cylindrically curved panels, with longitudinal edges unconstrained and loaded edges constrained, including the influence of curvature, aspect ratio and loading type (from pure compression to full in-plane bending) is presented in this paper. Subsequently, an extension of rules for internal plated members’ critical stress calculation from EN 1993-1-5 is proposed that takes into account the effect of curvature. The proposed approach, based on the numerical results, gives a safe but accurate estimate (lower bound) for the elastic critical stress.