Buckling refers to the sudden change in shape of a structure under load, which can lead to failure. Understanding how these shells behave under various conditions, including imperfections and ...

A novel approach using the smeared stiffener method has been proposed, which effectively predicts the critical buckling load and optimizes the design of both perfect and imperfect shells.

"Localised deformation and randomly shaped imperfections are salient features of buckling-type instabilities in thin-walled load-bearing structures," the PNAS study said. "However, it is generally ...