Axisymmetric Buckling of Pressure‐Loaded Spherical Caps
Publication: Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 118, Issue 4
Abstract
The axisymmetric buckling behavior of clamped shallow spherical shells under uniform pressure is investigated using Marguerre's shallow‐shell equations of 1939. The deflected shape of the shell as well as the stress function are described by linear combinations of Bessel functions and modified Bessel functions that satisfy all the relevant boundary and continuity conditions. The buckling characteristics of these caps are examined using a fully nonlinear Galerkin solution procedure, a classical bifurcation analysis, and a reduced‐stiffness bifurcation analysis. This allows the elucidation of the imperfection sensitivity and nonlinear behavior of this important class of shell structures. A systematic parametric analysis highlights the interplay between these contrasting approaches, and demonstrates the lower boundedness of the reduced‐stiffness analytical procedure for predicting imperfection‐sensitive elastic‐collapse pressures and its potential importance as a design methodology. A simple closed‐form solution is given for this analytical lower bound. This compares favorably with a large collection of available experimental results but demonstrates the variability and possible inadequacies in some of the existing design rules for spherical shell structures.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 118 • Issue 4 • April 1992
Pages: 970 - 985
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 ASCE.
History
Published online: Apr 1, 1992
Published in print: Apr 1992
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