SYMMETRICAL ELEMENTS IN GEOMETRICAL ANALYSIS OF LARGE DEFORMATIONS OF SPHERICAL-SHELLS

The paper is devoted to the study of two axisymmetric elements in the geometrical analysis of spherical shells. The application of the elements makes it possible to correctly describe the behaviour of the shell in the range from small to very large deformations. Simple, closed-form analytic expressions for the strain energy of the elements are obtained. The analysis of a spherical shell loaded by a concentrated force and external pressure is presented as an example for result verification. The results are in good agreement with experimental data. The two elements can be used to solve linear, non-linear and stability problems of spherical shells. It is therefore possible to easily implement the results for further elasto-plastic analysis or use them when the shell is a part of a large structure.