INFLUENCE OF DAMPING ON SNAPPING OF A SHALLOW ARCH UNDER A STEP PRESSURE LOAD

The snapping of a simply supported, shallow sinusoidal arch under a sinusoidally distributed step pressure load is considered. In the presence of velocity-dependent damping of any nonzero magnitude, it is shown that there exists no difference between static and dynamic snap loads for arch rises above a certain magnitude and for infinitesimal external disturbances. Below the foregoing value of arch rise snapping is governed entirely by symmetric snap-through. The results obtained here, when compared to an existing analysis on the subject, imply that a jump in the critical snap-through load occurs at the boundary between the damped and undamped systems. Similar results concerning cylinders and rings are mentioned. © 1969 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., All rights reserved.