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Thin-Walled Structures 47 (2009) 15571566

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Thin-Walled Structures
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tws

A study on the impact response of liquid-lled cylindrical shells

G.Y. Lu , Z.J. Han, J.P. Lei, S.Y. Zhang
Institute of Applied Mechanics, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, PR China

a r t i c l e in fo
Article history: Received 12 July 2008 Received in revised form 18 May 2009 Accepted 20 May 2009 Available online 16 June 2009 Keywords: Liquid-lled cylindrical shell Impact buckling Experimental investigation Numerical simulation

abstract
The axial impact buckling of thin metallic cylindrical shells fully lled with water was studied through impact experiments and numerical simulations. Low velocity impact tests were carried out by DHR9401 drop hammer rig. The experimental results indicate that quite high internal hydrodynamic pressure occurs inside the shell during the impact process. Under the combined action of high internal pressure and axial compression the thin-walled shells buckle plastically and the buckling modes take on regular and axisymmetric wrinkles. Under the joint action of the high internal pressure and the axial compression plastic buckling take place easily on the thin-walled shells and buckling modes take on regular and axisymmetric wrinkles. These results of the tests were used to validate a numerical model. The validated model was used in a parametric study of impacted specimens and these included variations in the shell wall thickness, material strength, length of the specimen and velocity of impact. & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction The large deformation behavior of thin-walled cylindrical shells under axial loading, both static and dynamic, has been extensively studied [1,2] and some simplied models together with numerical and experiment study have been reported [35] to describe the folding mechanism of deformation and estimate the energy absorbing characteristic [6]. Cylindrical shells are often used as vessels for storing and transporting liquid. Obviously, the existence of liquid medium will have an important effect on the dynamic response behavior of cylindrical shells. The investigation of the buckling process of liquid-lled cylindrical shells under axial impact is a very interesting subject and has important application value in the elds of structural engineering and some forming technologies. The stability of the cylindrical shell subjected to the joint action of axial compression and internal pressure has been extensively investigated [7,8], but the researches were limited to that of elasticity and the internal pressure was postulated as a constant during the whole buckling process. Zhang [9] and Li [10] studied experimentally the buckling process of liquid-full-lled and sealed cylindrical shells under axial compression and indicated that the water lled inside the cylindrical shell decreases the buckling sensitivity to initial imperfection and increases the resistance to structural collapse. Han [11] and Zhang [12] analyzed the problem by means of magnied function and the liquid lled in the shell was assumed

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 351 601 0560.

E-mail addresses: luguoyun@tyut.edu.cn (G.Y. Lu), syzhang@tyut.edu.cn (S.Y. Zhang). 0263-8231/$ - see front matter & 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tws.2009.05.005

as incompressible, but they did not take into account the dynamic response of the water. In fact, due to uid-structure interaction the pulse buckling of liquid-lled cylindrical shells is a complicated dynamic process. The method of magnied function used to estimate the preferred mode of buckling has limitations in analyzing the whole dynamic process. Experiments and computer simulations are effective approaches to solve this problem. In this paper, the buckling behavior of liquid-lled cylindrical shells subjected to impact is investigated. The main tasks of this study are (1) to gure out the characteristics of buckling modes, (2) to estimate the effects of variations in parameters, such as wall thickness, materials strength, length of the specimen and the impact velocity on buckling and (3) to examine the energy absorbing capability. Three series of impact experiments were carried out by a drop hammer rig. The geometrical parameters and the material characters of the cylindrical shells are listed in Table 1. The experimental results indicate that due to low compressibility of water high internal hydrodynamic pressure occurs inside the sealed shell during the impact process. The high internal pressure produces large membrane tensile stress in the circumferential direction of the cylindrical shell and results in axisymmetric buckling modes. Through the simple calculation of the experimental data of the internal pressure and the impact loading, we can conclude that the pressure of the liquid inside the shell bears most of the axial impact force during the post-buckling and the crashworthiness of the whole structure is raised. The purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of geometric and physical parameters on buckling behavior of liquid-lled cylindrical shells. Numerical studies were carried out by using the general FE-code LS-DYNA. Firstly, we conducted computer

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Table 1 The geometric dimension and material property of the cylindrical shell. Serial number (material) 1 (Galvanized iron) 2 (Aluminum) 3 (Stainless steel) Axial length (L/mm) Diameter (mm) Thickness (h/mm) Yield limit (sigma/MPa) 338 202 560 Youngs modulus (E/MPa) 202 72 200 Impact mass weightiness (kg) 28 56 28/56

122 166/244 173

66 75.5 63.4

0.22 1 0.68/1

Drop hammer tup V

3 Seal cover specimen Seal fitting

1 2 Base-plate
Fig. 1. Sketch of experiment specimen with linking load cell (1-pressure sensor, 2-protection gasket and 3-load cell).

simulations of the specimens used in the impact test. The buckling mode, the time-history curves of the impact force and the liquid pressure obtained by the simulation are quite consistent with the experimental results. Furthermore, the validated computation model was used to analyze in detail the effects of geometric and physical parameters, such as wall thickness, material strength, length of the specimen and impact velocity on buckling behavior.

2. Experimental process and results The experiment on the axial impact buckling of water-lled cylindrical shells was carried out by the DHR-9401 drop hammer rig. Two drop hammers of different weights (28 and 56 kg) were used in our test. The specimen was xed to the fringe of the baseplate, was sealed with epoxy resin and fully lled with water. Then the proximal end of water-lled specimen was also sealed with epoxy resin and a sealing cover. During the impact process, the variations in liquid pressure were measured by CY-YD-205 quartz pressure sensor and the load cell was set up between the shell and the protection gasket to measure the changes of the impact loading. The sketch of specimen connected with the load cell is shown in Fig. 1. To obtain the buckling mode the height of drop hammer was modied to achieve adequate impact velocity (V) to make the cylindrical shell fold. During the process of modifying the impact velocity we can nd that when the impact velocity was low the wrinkles occurred rstly at the shell ends, which, obviously,

results from boundary effect. With the increase of the impact velocity the buckling wave in the middle of the shell became clear and the number of fully developed buckling wave increased (shown in Fig. 2(e) and (f)). When the impact velocity reaches 4.43 m/s, all buckling waves occur along the whole length (L) of the shell in series 1. In series 2 the initial impact velocity has to be 7 m/s (166 mm) and 8.28 m/s (244 mm) to make the buckling wave develop sufciently, and in series 3 it has to be 9.9 m/s. Fig. 2 shows buckling modes of cylindrical shells made of different materials with different initial impact velocities. From Fig. 2 we can see that the wall of the 244-mm-long aluminum cylindrical shell is broken when the impact velocity reaches 8.85 m/s. In series 1 the shells walls are also broken (torn by the high internal pressure) and the cylindrical shell has been crushed into a thin lm when initial impact velocity reaches 4.85 m/s. The walls of the steel specimen are not broken owing to higher material strength and insufcient impact energy. The shell walls tear shows that large membrane tensile stress occurs in the circumferential direction during the impact process. In the tests more attention was paid to the variations in liquid pressure inside the shell. The time-history curves of liquid pressure were recorded in detail. According to the results of Li [10] the liquid pressure in post-buckling stage can be considered to be the same everywhere, so only one pressure sensor was set up on the bottom of the specimen to record the variations in liquid pressure. Fig. 3(a) shows four time-history curves of liquid pressure corresponding with impact velocities of 4.43, 5.42, 6.26 and 7.00 m/s, respectively, in series 2. These four curves are all recorded by the sensor on the bottom. It can be seen from the curves as shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b) that the amplitudes of liquid pressure in post-buckling stage are all about 5.0 MPa. Nevertheless, the duration is different for different impact velocities. The greater the impact velocity is, the longer the duration is. The amplitude and the duration of the pressure also change when the length of the shell changes. The longer the length of shell is, the lower the internal pressure becomes and the longer the duration is. The increase in the length of the shell may lead to global bending (Euler collapse). Fig. 3(c) and (d) gives the time-history curves of impact loading. It can also be seen that the change trend of impact loading is approximately the same as that of internal pressure. The duration of impact load varies with the change of initial impact velocity. The impact forces are about 35 kN and almost remain unchanged when the initial impact velocity increases. The impact loading does not uctuate obviously during the whole post-buckling stage, which is different from the impact buckling loading time history of the empty cylindrical shell. During the buckling process of the empty cylindrical shell the impact force is born fully by shell wall and regularly uctuate corresponding with the shell wall folding. For the liquid-lled cylindrical shell the liquid pressure produced by shell buckling bear almost all the impact force. The shell wall mainly bears circumferential tensile stress, which reduces dramatically the effect of the initial defect on the shell buckling. Fig. 4 gives the time-history curve of the internal pressure and the impact loading of the steel cylindrical shell. It can be seen that the change trend of the impact loading is different from that of the

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Fig. 2. Buckling model of the cylindrical shell in the different series (a) galvanized iron, (b) stainless steel, (c) aluminum, (d) broken model of aluminum shell, (e) the buckling modes of aluminum shells under different impact velocities (L 166 mm) (1) Prototype (2) v 4.43/ms (3)v 5.42m/s (4) v 6.26m/s (5) v 7.00m/s and (f) the buckling modes of aluminum shells under different impact velocities (L 244 mm). (1) v 4.43/ms (2) v 5.42m/s (3) v 6.26m/s (4) v 7.00m/s (5) v 7.67m/s (6) v 8.28m/s.

aluminum one. When the impact velocity increases the amplitude of the impact force and the internal pressure will increase instead of remaining unchanged as in the case of the aluminum one. This may be because the steel material has a greater strain-hardening modulus (see also the following parametric study of simulation). It should be noticed that the amplitude of the internal pressure sharply increases and then sharply decreases at the extremely short initial stage and then increases to and maintains a greater value which is different from that the case of the aluminum and galvanized iron cylindrical shell. Through the computer simulation, we nd that the time of the end of the internal pressure drop is the same as the occurrence of the rst buckling wave. Therefore, we can conclude that the process of the sharp increase and decrease of the internal pressure at the initial stage is the transition process from the axial compression of the shell into the buckling process. The transition process was not obvious in series 1 and 2 owing to the relatively lower strength or thinner wall. From the recorded time history of the impact force and the internal pressure in the experiments it can be found that the whole impact process consists of three stages: dynamic loading, dynamic post-buckling and elastic recovering. In the stage of dynamic loading, sudden loading causes violent oscillations on the amplitude of impact force and internal pressure. In the stage of dynamic post-buckling, the buckling waves develop sufciently on the shell wall. Moreover, the time-history curves are even. In

the last stage, the deformation of buckling stops and elastic deformation recovers. The impact force and internal pressure sharply drop and the impact procession is over. Through the calculation of the mean uid pressure times the cross-sectional area of the shell we can see that the reaction force of the uid is very great and it is about 63% of impact force for aluminum cylindrical shell and 95% for galvanized iron one.

3. Computer simulation In the simulation FEMB was used as the pre-processor to generate the geometrical model and produce the mesh and as the post-processor to help visualized the results and acquire the data. Actual calculations were performed on HPC360 workstation using explicit nite element code LS-DYNA. There were four parts in the numerical modeling to be used to simulate the cylindrical shell, hammer tup, protection gasket and water. The whole simulation modeling includes 1920 shell elements, 9600 solid elements and 11,077 nodes. The geometrical dimension of specimen, material parameters, mass of tup and impact velocity used in the simulation are consistent with those of the experiment in Series 1. The metal shell was dened as the linear strain-hardening elasto-plastic body (Material Type 3 provided by LS-DYNA) and modeled using 4-node Bely-tschkoTsay shell element [13,14]. The six DOF bottom end of shell is xed

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Fig. 3. The time history of the internal pressure and the impact force of the shell impacted with different velocity in series 2 (a) time history of the pressure of the shell impacted by different velocity (L 166 mm), (b) time history of the pressure of the shell with different height, (c) time history of the impact force of the shell impacted by different velocity (L 166 mm) and (d) time history of the impact force of the shell with different height.

for six DOF, and only axial direction moving was allowed at the top of the shell. For simplication the seal cover and the seal tting were not modeled in the computer simulation and the same elements as those of the cylindrical shell were used at the top and the bottom of the cylindrical shell to simulate the seal cover. This simplication did not affect the simulation results [15]. The drop hammer tup and the protection gasket were dened as rigid body and the equivalent density was used in the LS-DYNA program to simulate the real weight in the experiment. The water in the shell was dened as ideal uid, and ALE hexahedral element was used. The compressibility of the water was taken into account in the simulation. The modulus of volume elasticity changed slightly when temperature and the pressure changed. Based on the experimental condition, the modulus was taken as constant EV 1.93 GPa. As the internal and external self contact between the elements near the plastic hinge is expected, the contact between the shell and the striker is dened using the surface contact concept together with a single-contact method for self contact of the inner surfaces and the outer surfaces during the deformation of the shell [13,14].

The results of the experiment in series 1 were used to validate the numerical model. Fig. 5 gives the time-history curves of the impact loading and those of the internal pressure from the simulation and the test. From Fig. 5 we can nd that the consistency between the experimental observation and the numerical simulation is quite satisfactory in terms of the buckling mode, the time history of the impact force and the pressure. So this computer model is used to carry out the parameters analysis. Firstly, the effect of the impact velocity on the buckling of the liquid-lled shell was investigated. During the simulation process, we changed the initial impact velocity from 1 to 6 m/s while keeping the impact mass constant of 28 kg and the shell thickness of 0.22 mm unchanged. Fig. 6 gives the simulation results of the impact force and the internal pressure time history. The gure shows that when the linear strain-hardening modulus (Et) of the shells material is very low the impact force and the internal pressure will be kept to a certain number during the buckling process and will not vary with the increase of the initial impact velocity. But the duration is rather different when the impact velocity changes. The greater the impact velocity is, the longer the

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Fig. 4. The time history of the internal pressure and the impact force of the shell impacted with different velocity in series 3 (a) time history of the pressure of the shell impacted by different velocity (h 0.68 mm) and (b) time history of the impact force of the shell impacted by different velocity (h 0.68 mm).

Fig. 5. Impact and pressure time history from experiment results of the series 1 and simulation (a) impact force time history and (b) pressure time history.

duration is. When the linear strain-hardening modulus is greater than 1% of elastic modulus (E), the impact force and the internal pressure will increase with the development of the buckling mode and they all increase as the impact velocity increases. The nal buckling models of the simulation show that the variation of the initial impact velocity does not bring about the change in the wave number of the shells buckling on the condition of the present research with the large mass and the low impact velocity. In other words, the buckling wavelength does not change with the variation of the initial impact velocity. However the lower initial impact velocity can make the cylindrical shell ripple only near the top or the bottom as the result of the boundary effect. The higher initial impact velocity is needed for the shell to wrinkle along the whole shell body. So the whole buckling process of the uid-lled cylindrical shell can be regarded as a dynamic progressive process. Fig. 6 shows that the linear strain-hardening modulus affects the impact force and the internal pressure greatly, so we studied the effect of the linear strain-hardening modulus of the shells

material on the buckling by using the model of the shell with the thickness of 0.22 mm impacted by a mass with the initial impact velocity of 4.43 m/s. Fig. 7 gives the buckling modes of the shells of different linear strain-hardening modulus impacted by the same initial impact velocity. It can be seen that the shells take on regular and axisymmetric wrinkles. As the linear strain-hardening modulus increase, the wave number of the buckling increases. For instance, when the Et 1.5e2E the wave number of the buckling is 7. However, when the Et 1.0e7E the number is 4. In other words, the buckling wavelength becomes shorter with the strainhardening modulus increases. The simulation results also indicate that under the same impact velocity the amplitude of the impact force and the internal pressure will increase and the response duration will be shorter with the increase of the strain-hardening modulus. The greater the modulus is, the greater the impact force and the internal pressure become and the shorter the buckling duration does. That the buckling mode depends on the strainhardening coefcient rather than the impact velocity were

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0.0 -2.0 -4.0 Internal pressure (MPa)

force of v=1.96m/s force of v=2.80m/s force of v=3.43m/s force of v=3.96m/s

0.8 4.0 0.0 -4.0 -0.8 -1.2 -1.6 -2.0 -2.4 -2.8 -3.2 14 16 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 Time (ms) 10
press press press press of v=1.96m/s of v=2.80m/s of v=3.43m/s of v=3.96m/s

Impact force (KN)

-6.0 -8.0 -10 -12 -14 -16 -18 0.0 2 4 6 8 Time (ms)

10

12

12

14

16

0.0 -2.0 -4.0 Impact force (KN) -6.0 -8.0 -10 -12 -14 -16 -18 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10 Time (ms)
force of v=1.96m/s force of v=2.80m/s force of v=3.43m/s force of v=3.96m/s

0.8 4.0 0.0 internal pressure (MPa) -4.0 -0.8 -1.2 -1.6 -2.0 -2.4 -2.8 -3.2 -3.6 16 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10 12 14 16 Time (ms)
press press press press of v=1.96m/s of v=2.80m/s of v=3.43m/s of v=3.96m/s

12

14

Fig. 6. Impact force and pressure time history under different impact velocity and different linear strength modulus (Et) (E Youngs modulus) (a) impact force time history under different impact velocity (Et 1.0e6*E), (b) pressure time history under different impact velocity (Et 1.0e6*E), (c) impact force time history under different impact velocity (Et 1.5e02*E) and (d) pressure time history under different impact velocity (Et 1.5e02*E).

Fig. 7. The buckling mode of the shell with different linear strain-hardening modulus (Et) under the same impact velocity (V 4.43 m/s) (a) Et 1.5%E (b) Et 1.0%E (c) Et 1.0e3E (d) Et 1.0e7E.

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reported and discussed in [16,17]. This phenomenon has also been observed in the present numerical simulation. The buckling modes of the shells of different wall thicknesses were also compared. During the simulation only the shell wall thickness varied from 0.1 to 1.8 mm and the other parameters kept unchanged (V 3.43 m/s and M 28 kg). Fig. 8 shows the buckling modes of the shells of different wall thicknesses. It is obvious that the buckling wave number decreases as the wall thickness increases except for the shell with the wall thickness of 0.1 mm which bulged on the whole (all in all) shell body and rippled and self-contacted at the bottom. The time histories of the impact force and the internal pressure are shown in Fig. 9. It can be seen that the increase in the wall thickness leads to a signicant increase in the impact force and the internal pressure. If we assume that the shells resistance to the impact

mainly comes from the shell buckling and the water pressure. Through a simple calculation base on the gures of Fig. 9, it can be found that as the wall thickness of the shell increases the resistance to the impact force from the liquid pressure becomes less while that from the buckling deformation of the shell wall becomes greater in the post-buckling stage. The effect of the yield strength on the buckling was assessed with the yield strength varying from 100 to 690 Mpa while other parameters keep unchanged. The computer simulation results show that when the yield strength changed from 100 to 600 Mpa the buckling wave number ranged from 6 to 7. The effect of the yield strength on the buckling wavelength is very weak compared with that of the linear strain-hardening modulus. Fig. 10 shows the time history of the impact force and the internal pressure. It can be seen that with the increase of the yield strength the impact

Fig. 8. Buckling mode of the shell with different wall thickness under the same impact velocity (V 4.43 m/s) (a) h 0.1 mm (b) h 0.2 mm (c) h 0.3 mm (d) h 0.4 mm (e) h 0.5 mm (f) h 0.7 mm (g) h 0.8 mm (h) h 1.8 m.

Fig. 9. Impact force and pressure time history of the shell with different wall thickness from 0.3 to 0.7 mm under the same impact velocity (V 4.43 m/s) (a) impact force time history (b) pressure time history.

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0.0 -4.0 -8.0 -1.2 Impact force (KN) -12 -16 -20 -24 -28 16 0.0 4.0 8.0 Time (ms) 12 16
sigma = 180 sigma = 240 sigma = 330 sigma = 420 sigma = 500 sigma = 600 sigma = 690

0.0 Internal pressure (MPa)

-2.4

-3.6

-4.8 -5.4 0.0 4.0 8.0 Time (ms) 12

sigma = 180 sigma = 240 sigma = 330 sigma = 420 sigma = 500 sigma = 600 sigma = 690

Fig. 10. Impact force and pressure time history of the shell with different yield strength (sigma) from 180 to 690 Mpa under the same impact velocity (V 4.43 m/s) (a) pressure time history (b) impact force time history.

Fig. 11. Buckling mode of the shell with different shell length under the same impact velocity (V 4.43 m/s) (a) L 92 mm (b) L 122 mm (c) L 143 mm (d) L 184 mm.

force and the internal pressure increase signicantly, while the duration of the impact response decreases. Fig. 11 gives the buckling modes of the shells of different length impacted by the same impact velocity. With the length of the shell increase from 92 to 184 mm the wave number of the buckling increases from 5 to 8. According to the ripple number, we can work out the half wavelengths of the four different cylindrical shells. They are 15.3, 20.3, 20.4 and 23 mm, respectively. It can be seen that the wavelength of the buckling will varies with the change in the shell length which can also be seen in Fig. 2(e) and (f). Fig. 12 gives the time histories of the internal pressure and the impact force of the shell of different lengths. It can be seen that under the same initial impact velocity the internal pressure and the impact force decrease and the duration increases with the increase in the shell length. From the view point of the author the increase in the shell length lead to the increase in the volume of the cylindrical shell, so under the same impact energy the relative volume compression ratio decreases, which results in the decrease of the internal pressure. The increase in the wave number of buckling of the longer cylindrical shell makes the impact force more even and lower value than that of the short cylindrical shell.

4. Discussion and conclusion The pulse buckling of thin liquid-lled cylindrical shells under axial impact is a transient dynamic process of strong nonlinear behavior. It is difcult to describe this complicated process by a simple mechanical model due to the uid-structure interaction and the coupling of geometric and physical nonlinear effects. In the present paper the buckling modes and the time-history curves of the impact force and the internal pressure acquired by numerical simulation are compared with those of the experimental records. Since the consistency between the simulation and the experiment is satisfactory. The results of the simulations and the experiments are reliable. The mechanism of the pulse buckling and the effect of some parameters on buckling are analyzed. Some valuable points of the present numerical and experimental studies can be summarized as follows:

(1) The buckling behavior of cylindrical shells has been improved due to the existence of the liquid inside the shell. High hydrodynamic pressure occurs inside the shell during the impact process which reduces the bucklings sensitivity to the initial imperfection. Under the combination action of the high

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Fig. 12. Impact force and pressure time history of the shell with different length of shell under the same impact velocity (V 4.43 ) (a) impact force time history (b) pressure time history.

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

internal pressure and the axial compression, the thin-walled shells take on the regular and axisymmetric buckling model. This property can be found in the applications in some forming technologies without mould. Both the simulation and the test indicate that the time-history curves of the impact loading and the internal pressure consist of three stages: the dynamic loading, the dynamic postbuckling and the elastic recovering. The impact energy is mainly dissipated by the plastic deformation in the stage of the dynamic post-buckling. Since no ltering treatment is conducted to the time-history curves recorded in the experiments, these curves have a segment of violent oscillation in the beginning stage of the dynamic loading. It is probable that these oscillations are stress wave effect or high-frequency noise caused by the impact action. But their effects on the whole buckling process are not important for the present research about buckling mode. It is necessary to study this phenomenon latter for the wave effect research. It is shown that the buckling mode of the shell under the low velocity impact is sensitive to the material property, particularly to the strain-hardening modulus. With the increase of the linear strain-hardening modulus the buckling wave length will be shorter and the internal pressure and the impact force will increase. The modulus determines the plastic wave speed, which affects the wave length of the buckling. The effect of the impact velocity under the low velocity impact is small unless the material is of strong strain-hardening property. According to the experimental work on mild steel and aluminum, the difference in the impact velocity only affects the response duration but does not affect the amplitude of the impact force and the internal pressure of the aluminum which has low strain-hardening modulus. However, with the increase of the impact velocity the amplitude of the impact force and the internal pressure will increase in terms of the steel cylindrical shell which has large strain-hardening modulus, but the model of the buckling remains unchanged. The yield strength effect is very weak compared with the effect of the linear strain-hardening modulus. The wall thickness of the shell affects the buckling wave number, and

with the increase of the wall thickness the buckling wave length increases.

Acknowledgements This project is sponsored by The National Nature Science Fund of China (No. 10702047) and The Scientic Research Fund of ShanXi Province (No. 2008021006). References
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