A Symplectic Hamiltonian Approach for Thermal Buckling of Cylindrical Shells

The paper deals with the thermal buckling of cylindrical shells in a uniform temperature field based on the Hamiltonian principle in a symplectic space. In the system, the buckling problem is reduced to an eigenvalue problem which corresponds to the critical temperatures and buckling modes. Unlike the classical approach where a predetermined trial shape function satisfying the geometric boundary conditions is required at the outset, the symplectic eigenvalue approach is completely rational where solutions satisfying both geometric and natural boundary conditions are solved with complete reasoning. The results reveal distinct axisymmetric buckling and nonaxisymmetric buckling modes under thermal loads. Besides, the influence for different boundary conditions is discussed.