NACA-ARR-L5A05

Abstract

INTODUCTION <br>A knowledge of the buckling stress of curved sheet under shear is of considerable importance in aircraft structural design. For complete circular cylinders, the problem has been attacked theoretically and experimentally by a number of authors. For a panel that constitutes only a part of the circumference, the published theory appears to be limited to papers by Leggett (reference 1) and by Kromm (reference 2), which give approximate solutions for a panel very long in the axial direction. Previous to the publication of references 1 and 2, Wanger had proposed a formula (reference 3) in which the buckling stress appears as the sum of the term expressing the effect of curvature and a term expressing the buckling strength of a flat plate. This formula was modified slightly in reference 4 by adding a term correcting the flat-plate term for finite aspect ratio. An analysis of miscellaneous published and unpublished test data to determine the coefficient for the curvature term was also given in reference 4. <br>The test data showed a large amount of scatter for reasons that could not be determined from the published evidence. The present paper gives the results of a systematic series of tests undertaken to obtain a more reliable formula than heretofore available.