Axisymmetrical Creep Buckling of Clamped Shallow Spherical Shells

For a viscoelastic clamped shallow spherical shell, the vertical deflection due to uniformly distributed external pressure is a function of time. When time reaches a critical value, the shell may snap through suddenly. This critical time depends on the magnitude of the applied pressure as well as the shell geometry. The governing equations for large deformations of viscoelastic shells can be derived by applying the correspondence principle to the equivalent equations in the elastic case. The critical times for various shells under different pressures are evaluated numerically. If the deflection volume of the shell is a constant throughout the deformation process, the external pressure decreases due to relaxation of stresses in the viscoelastic shell. This decreasing external pressure is also calculated in this paper.