Axisymmetric deformation of varying thickness cylindrical shell with various end conditions

Abstract

A varying thickness cylindrical shell subjected to axisymmetric deformation is analyzed by the finite element displacement method. Numerical results are presented in the form of graphs for clamped-clamped, clamped-free, and simply supported-simply supported end conditions. It is shown that by properly selecting the thickness variation of the shell wall both the stresses and deflections can be reduced considerably.