Effect of Internal Pressure on the Influence Coefficients of Spherical Shells

Abstract

Uniform asymptotic solutions are found for the differential equations governing the symmetric bending of spherical shells of constant thickness subjected to self-equilibrating edge loads and internal pressure. The solutions include the effect of nonlinear coupling of the stresses and edge loads. These solutions are used to obtain expressions for the influence coefficients of both a spherical cap and the complementary portion of the sphere. The effect of the pressure coupling on these influence coefficients is presented graphically.