Buckling of metallic shells: Buckling and postbuckling behaviour of isotropic shells, especially cylinders

The large discrepancies between observed buckling loads for thin shells and the predictions of the classical theory have been a great challenge to many researchers since the 1920s. In this paper, the basic behaviour and characteristics are described and recent research, mainly from the last 10 years, is reviewed. The focus is on cylindrical shells and on the influence of initial imperfections on the buckling behaviour.