Buckling strength of spherical shells

Abstract In preparing a Swedish handbook on stability of shell structures it was contended that present design codes and recommendations, with few exceptions, employ rather crude rules and also severe tolerance limits especially concerning spherical domes manufactured on site. A re-evaluation of test results available for metal domes subjected to external pressure was made with the aim of establishing a more refined procedure to determine a safe knock-down function to be applied to classical linear buckling strength. In the treatment of the test results a computer program was used allowing a statistical analysis.