Abstract: The experimental phenomenon and theoretical analysis are given for the torsional buckling of elastic cylindrical shells. From the experiment, it is found that the postbuckling deformation doesn't occupy the whole length when the shell is longer. In the theoretical calculation, only the normal displacement boundary condition is taken into account. By comparing the present calculation results with the accurate result of Yamakis theory and the results of the present experiment, it is shown that the influence of the axial and circumference boundary condition is less important.