On the Buckling and Initial Postbuckling Behavior of Shallow Spherical and Conical Sandwich Shells

The boundary-value problems associated with the axisymmetrical, asymmetrical, and initial postbuckling behavior of the clamped shallow conical sandwich shell under a uniform pressure are developed for face sheets of the same material and equal thicknesses. The numerical results presented show that the buckling and initial postbuckling behavior of the sandwich cap is similar to that of the conical homogeneous cap. The effects of the thickness and material parameters on the axisymmetric snap-through buckling behavior of the clamped shallow spherical and conical sandwich shells are also studied. For one material parameter considered the axisymmetric buckling behavior of the sandwich shells is similar to that of the corresponding homogeneous shells; so it is suggested that, without any further analysis, the asymmetric buckling and the initial postbuckling behavior of the sandwich cap can be obtained by conjecture. For the other material parameters considered, the axisymmetric buckling behavior of the sandwich caps is different from the axisymmetric buckling behavior of the corresponding homogeneous caps.