ABSTRACT
The differential equation relating the deflection of a circular-cylindrical wall of variable thickness to the intensity of a radial axisymmetrical loading is derived in section 2.2 (equation 2.10). A closed-form solution to the equation is available1
for the case of a wall with linearly varying thickness subjected to axisymmetrical distributed load of linearly varying intensity. The solution is usually given as the sum of a particular integral and complementary solution of the homogeneous equation obtained by setting the right-hand side of equation (2.10) equal to zero. It is assumed that only the second part of the solution implies bending deformation, while the contribution of the particular solution to the bending moment is ignored. The error induced by this approximation may not be negligible in very short cylinders.
