Axisymmetric Behavior of an Elastic Spherical Shell Compressed Between Rigid Plates

Abstract

This paper presents the first phase in the analysis of the deformation of a shell of revolution when it is being crushed by a rigid wall. In this paper, the analysis accounts for finite deflections and rotations but assumes that the material remains linearly elastic. The load-deflection behavior is obtained for a hemispherical shell, and it shows that the shell cannot collapse with a flat contact region. The conditions for the buckling of the contact region are determined.