Abstract: The chaotic motion of a closed cylindrical shell undergoing an oscillating axial load is studied. The nonlinear motion equations of cylindrical shell are obtained by introducing inertial and damping force into Donnell-Kármán large deflection equations, and are transformed into an ordinary differential equation containing third-order nonlinear term by means of the Bubnov-Galerkin method. Based on qualitative analysis, the threshold conditions of the existence of horseshoe-type chaos are presented in the two case of pre-buckling and post-buckling by using of sub-harmonic obit and homoclinic orbit Melnikov function. Lastly, the time-history curve, phase portrait and Poincaré map are calculated by means of MATLAB software.