The effect of frame torsion on the local stability of a ring-stiffened cylindrical shell

In the previous research, the effect of the frame torsion on the local stability of a ring-stiffened cylindrical shell, which was proved to be significant, was usually omitted. In this paper this effect under the action of static water pressure is studied. The frame torsional strain energy is calculated by consulting the method used in the research on the stability of a stiffened rectangular plate. With this item of energy being introduced into the total potential energy of the structure, a new stability formula for calculating the critical pressure for the local buckling of the ring-stiffened cylindrical shell is obtained by Ritz method. This new formula can be regarded as a revision of the famous Mises’ formula. The calculation of the example shows that the critical pressure given by this formula is closer to the model test data than that given by Mises’ formula.