Thermal buckling of shallow composite spherical shells

A thermal buckling analysis for laminated spherical shells is presented. Derivations of the equilibrium and stability equations are based on the classical laminated shell theory, Sanders’s nonlinear kinematic relations are substituted into the total potential energy function of the shell. The analysis uses Galerkin method to obtain closed form solutions for the buckling loads of shallow spherical shells. Analytical solutions are obtained for two types of thermal loading including Uniform Temperature Rise (UTR), Linear Radial Temperature (LRT). The results are validated with the known data in the literature