Buckling of externally pressurised ellipsoidal domes with variable wall thicknesses

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the buckling of nontypical ellipsoidal domes under uniform external pressure. According to the strength and stiffness optimisation theory, the structure of the ellipsoidal dome was optimised respectively, and two meridional profiling curves of the ellipsoidal dome were obtained. Two mass-equivalent ellipsoidal domes with variable wall thickness and one mass-equivalent ellipsoidal dome with constant wall thickness were fabricated using CNC machining, with a nominal long-axis and short-axis radius of 100 and 75 mm, respectively. The geometry, wall thickness, and buckling load of each ellipsoidal dome were measured. The agreement between numerical predictions and experimental results is good. The results indicate that the ellipsoidal dome with variable wall thickness has a relatively large load-carrying capacity.

KEYWORDS:

• Buckling
• ellipsoidal domes
• structural optimisation
• variable wall thickness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 52271277], the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [grant number BK20211343], and the State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) [grant number GKZD010081].