A finite element analysis code considering elasto-plastic large deformation is developed to predict the ultimate strength of circular cylinders subject to external pressure loading by introducing a new type of axisymmetric shell element which can take into account the plasticity effect due to the circumferential bending while drastically saving the computing efforts compared with the tree dimensional finite element analysis. It is observed that analsis results of present approach show good agreement with the test results of previous works. Parametric study gives the effects of initial imperfections on ultimate strength ahd this information is recommended to be used to modify the actual test data to the ones which can be used more reasonably in making empirical design formulas.