Bifurcation problems with \(O(2)\oplus Z_ 2\) symmetry and the buckling of a cylindrical shell (Q1094911)

The treatment of shell buckling problems especially in the postbuckling regime is a very complicated but also very challenging task. This stems from the fact that mostly due to symmetry properties of the shell geometry (sphere, cylinder) the critical eigenvalues have high multiplicity. On the other hand making use of the symmetries of the problem the Liapunov-Schmidt reduction and the normal forms can be considerably simplified because the bifurcation equations must be equivariant with respect to the symmetry group. This concept has been applied by the authors in this nicely written paper to the buckling problem of a cylindrical shell under axial compression, where for a special choice of the geometrical parameters for a four-fold critical eigenvalue the bifurcation equations in invariant form are given making use of the methods of equivariant singularity theory. Corresponding bifurcation diagrams showing different types of solution are indicated. Furthermore the existence of secondary bifurcations is proved under small variations of the critical parameter values.