Stability of a porous-cellular cylindrical shell subjected to combined loads

The subject of the paper is a metal foam circular cylindrical shell subjected to combined loads. Combinations of the external pressure and axial load are taken into account. The shell is simply supported on all outer edges. The mechanical properties of the metal foam vary continuously in the thickness direction. A non-linear hypothesis of deformation of a plane cross section of the shell is formulated. The field of displacements of any cross section and non-linear geometric relationships are assumed. The system of partial differential equations for the shell is derived on the basis of the principle of stationarity of the total potential energy. This system is approximately solved by the Bubnov-Galerkin method. The critical loads for shells are numerically determined. Results of the calculation are shown in figures.