Unsymmetrical Buckling of Thin Shallow Spherical Shells

The axisymmetrical snapping of clamped shallow spherical shells has been studied by many authors. There is found to be a discrepancy between the experimental observation of the buckling pressure and their theoretical prediction. In this paper, a study is made of the buckling pressure based on the initiation of unsymmetrical deflection. An eigenvalue problem is formulated and the buckling pressures for shells of a large range of geometrical parameters are obtained numerically. The present work reduces the gap between experiment and theory.