Creep buckling analysis of shells

Creep buckling in thin-walled structural members subjected to sustained loads at elevated temperatures was examined in regard to characteristics of liquid metal fast breeder reactors. The aluminum cylinder work of Samuelson was the basis of this study which is divided into three parts: (1) a software verification part designed to show that an existing general purpose, nonlinear, finite element program was capable of successfully analyzing the problem; (2) a convergence part that examined different elements, meshes, and nonlinear computing strategies so that a near-minimum critical buckling time could be assured; and (3) the safety factor evaluation parameter calculations themselves. These items are discussed in some detail and Samuelson's experiments are described. The computational procedure by which the critical buckling times are calculated is outlined. Essential results are given with conclusions and recommendations.