Buckling and initial post-buckling behavior of clamped shallow spherical sandwich shells

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a set of nonlinear differential equations that are suitable for the analysis of the buckling and initial post-buckling behavior of thin shallow spherical sandwich shells under axisymmetrical loads. The boundary value problems associated with the axisymmetrical, asymmetrical and initial post-buckling behaviors for clamped shallow spherical sandwich shells under certain axisymmetrical loads are developed also. Finally, numerical results of the buckling and initial post-buckling behavior of the clamped shallow spherical sandwich shell under pressures that are distributed uniformly over the entire reference surface of the shell are studied for face sheets of the same material and equal thicknesses. The numerical results show that the buckling and initial post-buckling behavior for the sandwich cap is very similar to that for the classical homogeneous cap.