Buckling of 3D-printed cylindrical shells with corrugated surface

3D-printing technology opens broad possibilities to manufacture structural shapes which could not be always possible by other methods. In the field of lightweight shells it allows to investigate structures with higher buckling loads than conventional shells. The buckling behavior of 3D-printed shells is studied in this paper where the shape of the cylindrical shells is modified by adding corrugation in the axial or circumferential directions. The shells are characterized by the amplitude of the corrugation and the number of the sinusoidal waves. Their elastic mechanical behavior is analyzed up to the buckling load. The numerical analysis shows that the modified surface can significantly improve the buckling load and reduces the sensitivity towards geometric imperfections. Prototypes of the shells were manufactured and tested to validate the numerical model. Regardless the experimental scatter, the average buckling load of the optimized corrugated shell twice exceeds the buckling load of the reference circular shell. At the same time stiffness and mass of the shell remain the same.