Buckling tests of sandwich cylindrical shells with and without cut-outs

The results of buckling tests performed during the project DESICOS funded by the European Commission in the FP7 Programme are here presented. The tested structures are sandwich cylindrical shells that consist of reduced models of a component of the Ariane 5 launcher: the Dual Launch System. In particular, the scaled component is studied with and without the presence of cut-outs. Before performing the tests, the geometric imperfections as well as the thickness variations were measured. The tests were performed using the buckling testing equipment of Politecnico di Milano. The results of the tests contributed to understand the complex phenomenon of buckling of sandwich cylindrical shells, and to study the effect of initial geometric imperfections. They were also used to validate finite element models useful for the design of future launcher structures, and to set-up a probabilistic approach for the buckling analysis of cylindrical shells.