Dynamic instability of fiber composite cylindrical shell with metal liner subjected to internal pulse loading

Abstract Thin-walled cylindrical shells are commonly used structures in explosion containment vessels. When subjected to internal blast loading, these cylindrical shells are prone to dynamic buckling failure. In this work the dynamic stability of cylindrical fiber composite shells with metal liner subjected to uniform internal pressure pulse was investigated through both finite element simulations and theoretical modelling. In particular, pulse buckling of the inner metal liner and vibrational buckling of the outer fiber composite shell were observed and studied. Dynamic, Implicit analysis in ABAQUS Standard considering the initial geometric imperfections were conducted to study the mechanisms for the dynamic buckling of the inner metal liner and outer fiber composite shell. The simulated buckled shape using a simplified two-dimensional model could successfully reproduce the previous experimental results. The dynamic pulse buckling of the metal liner was found to occur during the plastic compression process. The effect of the buckling amplitude of the inner metal liner on the dynamic stability of the outer fiber composite shell was also revealed using numerical simulations. Instead of preventing the outer fiber composite shell from buckling instability, severely buckled metal liner with large buckling amplitude may even accelerate the growth of unstable mode of the fiber composite shell. The theoretical solution for the radial deformation of the metal liner was established by modelling the growth of the buckling mode as the amplification of the initial geometric or velocity imperfection. The most amplified mode and corresponding amplification were determined by the derived amplification function. The solutions for the radial deformation of the outer fiber composite shell were represented by a set of Mathieu differential equations. The dynamic instability of the fiber composite shells was determined from the Mathieu stability charts. The dependence of the dynamic instability of the bilayer composite shells on various parameters such as composite layup, thickness-to-radius ratio and impulse of pressure pulse loading was theoretically predicted and compared with the finite element simulation results.