Experimental Analysis of Pressurized Hollow Cylinders Under Self-weight

The leaf has an internal structure called the mesophyll, which includes a structured layer called the palisade mesophyll, subjected to an internal, turgor, pressure that sustains the plant through its life. Inspired by the palisade mesophyll, through both simulations and experiments we study the influence of internal pressure on the self-weight buckling of hollow cylinders, for a range of geometrical and material properties. Through both numerical simulations and experiments, we find two regimes depending on the radius-to-length ratio of the cylinder. When this ratio is large enough, the cylinder buckles with a localized buckling mode at half-length and a critical pressure scaling with the third power of the thickness-to-radius ratio, reminiscent of the ring-like buckling observed in pressurized, thin cylindrical shells. On the contrary, for a small enough radius-to-length ratio, the buckling mode is global and rod-like, with a critical pressure scaling roughly linearly with the gravitational load.