Inelastic stability of loosely fitted cylindrical liners

One of the structural design aspects of most liners is to check their stability under external uniform pressures. For liners made from elastoplastic materials, inelastic stability should be considered. Any gap between the liner and its host will allow the liner to deform more freely than a tightly fitted liner, leading to a lower elastic or inelastic critical pressure. This paper uses the finite element method to study the effect of the liner's thickness-to-diameter, gap- to-diameter, and yield stress-to-Young's modulus ratios on its critical pressure and compares the results to the commonly used Jacobsen solution. The study defines also the type of liner buckling (i.e., elastic or inelastic) based on the values of the previously mentioned parameters. The results of this study are finally used to produce a series of charts that estimate the critical pressure of such loosely fitted liners. These charts represent a new tool that can be used in the design of liners.