I see what you're saying bradleyelwood and i definitely agree that the statement "hollow telescopic cylinders cannot buckle" is strange thinking. I know it would also be ideal to get the lateral stiffness measurements of the actual cylinder as you have done. Maybe in the future I'll be able to...
Thanks for the extra considerations guys...
Yeah Japo it looks like you basically derived the secant column formula and that's exactly how I approached half of my problem.
There are a mind-boggling amount of failure modes in a long, horizontally-mounted, unsupported hydraulic cylinder such...
Thank you for all the responses! I've never been an online forum user but that might change now that I know how helpful it can be.
Just to add some details to the situation...I work for a cylinder manufacturer so the cylinder under analysis is exactly the one that will be made in the shop...
I'm driving myself crazy with a seemingly easy problem. I've got a hydraulic cylinder mounted horizontally with no support in the middle (see attached picture) and I'm trying to determine what effect the weight of the cylinder has on the critical buckling load in the gravitational plane.
Ignore...
