Optimisation and compressive testing of additively manufactured stainless steel corrugated shells

Abstract Axially compressed circular cylindrical shells with large diameter‐to‐thickness ratios are known to be highly sensitive to initial geometric imperfections, which can drastically reduce their load‐carrying capacity. Their design typically involves the application of severe knock‐down factors on their theoretical buckling loads, which greatly impair their structural efficiency. In this paper, with the aim of reducing sensitivity to imperfections and enhancing load‐bearing resistance, optimised corrugated cylindrical shells are designed, additively manufactured, tested and analysed. Two corrugated shells with different equivalent diameter‐to‐thickness ratios, along with a reference circular cylindrical shell, were produced by powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing from martensitic precipitation hardening stainless steel powder. The structural performance of the PBF corrugated and circular shells was experimentally investigated, including tensile coupon tests, initial geometric measurements and compression tests. Numerical analyses were also carried out in parallel with the testing. The experimental and numerical results demonstrate that the optimised corrugated cross‐sections have lower imperfection sensitivity and higher axial resistances compared with their reference circular sections.