EXPERIMENTS ON SNAPPING OF A SHALLOW DOME UNDER A STEP PRESSURE LOAD

The critical step pressure loads required to produce snapping are determined experimentally for two shallow spherical shell models. These critical pressures are compared with static buckling pressures that were obtained from the results of a nondestructive static buckling test. The comparison reveals that the critical step pressures were between 55 and 58% of the static buckling pressure for one model and between 63 and 64% of the static buckling pressure for the other model. The critical step loads are also compared with the results of an axisymmetric theory, an imperfection-sensitive theory and a parametric resonance analysis. The axisymmetric theory result was slightly unconservative, the imperfection-sensitive theory result was significantly unconservative, and the parametric resonance analysis gave a slightly conservative lower bound on the critical load. The measured supercritical response of the shells was similar to the predictions of theory. © 1968 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., All rights reserved.