Elastic Buckling of Thin-walled Cylinders Under Wind Loading: an Experimental Study

Thin-walled cylindrical structures have been found to display three distinctly different stability failure modes under wind loading, depending on their geometric and material properties. In low cylinders the radial compression at the meridian facing the wind causes a buckling mode similar to that for cylinders under constant radial compression, while very long cylinders display a failure mode characterized by buckling in the lower third of the structure at the side which faces away from the wind. The failure of medium height cylinders is characterized by a number of horizontal, ripple-like buckles in an area around the upper half of the meridian which faces the wind. In an ongoing experimental study, a series of small-scale specimens with a wide range of geometric parameters is being tested in a wind tunnel. To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first time that the particular buckling mode for medium height cylinders has been documented in an experiment. The present paper gives a summary of the results gained from this study so far and compares them qualitatively to those of a previous numerical study.