This book contains four lectures delivered at the International Centre for Mechanical Sciences, UDINE, Italy, in 1985.
Slender and thin-walled structures are frequently used in aeronautics and also in mechanical, nuclear and civil engineering. The computation of their practical carrying capacity requires a nonlinear analysis. For many shells in the elastic or elastoplastic range, geometric nonlinearities are needed to calculate the reduction of the critical load due, for instance, to imperfections. These lectures aim to give a comprehensive account for the theoretical, numerical and experimental methods which are useful to analyse the buckling and post-buckling behavior of structures.
The book is intended for postgraduate students, researchers and engineers who are interested in this field.