Organizers:
- Dr. Uba K. Ubamanyu, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Switzerland
- Prof. Pedro M. Reis, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Switzerland
Description:
Buckling instabilities of shells and other slender structures have a long history spanning several decades, owing to their ubiquitous presence in nature and exceptional structural efficiency. Following Koiter’s seminal work on the general theory of elastic buckling in 1945, research on shell buckling for canonical shapes experienced significant growth over the subsequent 30 years, before reaching a period of relative stagnation. However, over the past decade, shell buckling research has experienced a revival, driven by rapid advancements in new materials, manufacturing processes, and computational and experimental techniques and capabilities, which have introduced a wealth of novel forms and shapes, and also by a paradigm shift from viewing instability solely as a catastrophic failure to recognizing it as an opportunity for functionality—a concept framed as ‘Buckliphobic vs. Buckliphilic’.
One of the next frontiers lies in extending our existing knowledge of canonical shapes to study the buckling behavior of non-canonical and arbitrary shell surfaces and their imperfection sensitivities. Such studies could pave the way for highly deformable structures and innovative devices that exploit nonlinear, nontrivial responses for functionality. Similarly, new challenges arise in exploring the buckling and post-buckling behavior of non-isotropic, heterogeneous, architectured, and composite materials and structures, understanding dynamic buckling instabilities, and contrasting the behavior of monocoque and stiffened shell structures. Addressing these topics will open opportunities for designing advanced materials and multifunctional structures with superior performance.
This mini-symposium provides a platform to stimulate interdisciplinary discussions that connect classical insights with recent theoretical, computational, and experimental advances in the study of instabilities of shells and structures. It aims to identify future challenges and opportunities, inspiring innovation in the field.
Topics of interest:
Topics covered in this symposium include, but are not limited to:
- Novel analytical, numerical, and experimental methods for investigating buckling instabilities in shells and slender structures.
- Advances in imperfection sensitivity and stability theory.
- Buckling instabilities of systems that are beyond homogeneous and isotropic, such as hierarchical, composite, and architectured materials and structures.
- Dynamic buckling instabilities and time-dependent behaviors in shell structures.
- Comparative studies of monocoque versus stiffened shells and their implications for design.
- Applications arising from utilizing shell instabilities for functionality (energy harvesting, energy absorbing, shape morphing, and other interesting functional properties) in aerospace, civil engineering, and biomechanics.
- Design applications in mechanical metamaterials and engineering structures.