The initial post-buckling behavior of thick rings under external uniform hydrostatic pressure is investigated. In the analysis, no assumptions are placed upon the relative magnitudes of the elongations and rotations, and the ring is assumed to be elastic and extensional. The importance of including certain nonlinear terms in the initial post-buckling stability analysis and the effects of nonzero shearing strains on the buckling load and the initial post-buckling stability are examined. It is shown that the classical Kirchhoff assumptions, when employed for a ring lead to nonvanishing through thickness strains, εzz and εzθ, with the latter being proportional to the through thickness coordinate z. An approximate first order shear deformation analysis and a two-dimensional elasticity analysis (without beam-type kinematical assumptions) of the initial post-buckling behavior of thick rings are presented and the thickness effects on the buckling load and the initial post-buckling behavior are examined. The formulation for the composite ring was reduced to that of an isotropic ring and the results thus obtained were compared with published one-dimensional results in the literature. It is found from both the shear deformation and the two-dimensional analysis that the initial post-buckling behavior of the isotropic ring and the composite rings studied are stable. The influence of thickness on the degree of stability in the immediate post-buckling response is characterized.
