Poking imperfect shells to non-destructively predict their buckling loads: success rate and perspectives

What is the critical load required to crush a soda can or a space rocket shell?
Surprisingly, there is no good way to estimate it, because of the high defect-sensitivity of the buckling instability.
Here we measure the response of (imperfect) soda cans to lateral poking and identify a generic stability landscape, which fully characterizes the stability of real imperfect shells in the case where one single defect dominates.
By using this new paradigm, we are able to accurately and non-destructively predict the buckling load of real imperfect shell structures, thereby promising drastic reductions of the costs of structural engineering experimental tests.
We will discuss the success rate of the method and the perspectives offered by such an approach.