On the buckling of imperfect squarely-reticulated shallow spherical shells supported by elastic media

Non-linear buckling behaviors of single-layer squarely-reticulated shallow spherical shells with geometrical imperfections and continuously supported on springs have been studied in this paper. The shell structure is subjected to uniform vertical load and the imperfection has been assumed to have the same mode as that of transverse displacement of the shell, but the specific form of mode has not been presumed. Using the asymptotic iteration method, an analytical solution is obtained on the basis of a theoretical model proposed by the author. The resulting nondimensional expression between the external load and central transverse displacement (deflection) can be conveniently adopted to analyze non-linear behaviors of the structures and evaluate the effects of various parameters (e.g., stiffness of spring, imperfect factor and boundary conditions, etc.) on buckling behaviors. Numerical examples are given and compared with available results. Effects of several factors are also demonstrated.