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Buckling of a relatively thick spherical cap (R/t=50) under uniform external pressure

This and the next few slides are for buckling of externally pressurized spherical caps.

From:
Walter Wunderlich and Ursula Albertin (Lehrstuhl für Statik, Technische Universität München, Arcisstrasse 21, 80333 München, Germany), “Buckling behaviour of imperfect spherical shells”, International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics, Vol. 37, Nos. 4-5, June 2002, pp. 589-604, Special Issue: Stability & Vibration in Thin-Walled Structures, doi:10.1016/S0020-7462(01)00086-5

ABSTRACT: For the design of spherical shells under external pressure relatively few information can be found in corresponding codes and recommendations, e.g. not at all in the new draft of Eurocode 3 ENV 1993-1-6. Under this aspect, new design rules for these shells were developed, which take into account relevant details like boundary conditions, material properties, and imperfections. They are usually based on a large number of systematic numerical simulations to obtain results describing the load carrying behaviour and imperfection sensitivity of thin spherical shells. In addition, previous theoretical and experimental results are discussed. Based on the results, diagrams and design rules have been developed which might be used for new recommendations in the design concept of the Eurocode.

Fig. 4. Spherical caps with R/t=50, edge angle, φ=60° and clamped edges: (a) eigenmode of the elastic shell; (b) Fourier harmonics of bifurcation.

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