Dynamic buckling of shallow spherical caps subjected to a nearly axisymmetric step pressure load

Abstract

The behavior of shallow spherical caps subjected to axisymmetric and nearly axisymmetric step pressure loads is examined using a digital computer program for the geometrically nonlinear analysis of arbitrarily loaded shells of revolution. A criterion for dynamic buckling under the nearly axisymmetric load is proposed and critical buckling pressures are determined for both loading conditions for a large range of cap sizes. The axisymmetric results either compare well with, or are somewhat higher than, previously published theoretical results. For most of the cap sizes the buckling pressures from the asymmetric analysis are new results. A numerical convergence study is conducted to verify the accuracy of the results.