A few more remarks on your problem.
1)For the axial case Timoshenko uses an assumption that I think is no more valid in your conditions. The assumption is that the axial compressive force in the buckled shell is constant and equal to the value before buckling.
This condition may clearly be approximated only for a buckling deformation that has equal inward and outward waves, as the outward waves will have less compression and the inward ones more, but the average stays yhe same.
This may be no more valid for inward waves only, so I think that, if you wanted to go on with a theoretical approach, those equations would need to be made more general.
2)I'm not sure to fully understand your description of the interaction between the liner and the can, but guess you have something similar to a buckling due to differential expansion between the two: in this case I agree that friction is unrelevant.
3)Concerning the circumferential buckling, the calculation can be performed also theoretically, though this is quite cumbersome, but not really complex.
However here too it is necessary to use the equations for circular arches that fully include the contribution of membrane and shear deformations (Timoshenko's approach is with an inextensional bending deformation superimposed to a uniform membrane strain)
You can see a solution of this kind
here at Xcalcs and obtain the numerical coefficients for the radial deformation corresponding to any opening angle of the arch (an analytical approach is also possible, as I said above).
Now clearly the buckling condition would correspond to a radial deflection in the middle equal to the rise of the arch.
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