Shells of revolution free of bending under uniform axial loading

Abstract The meridian geometry of a shell of revolution may be chosen so that, if clamped or simply supported end conditions exist, neither bending moments nor transverse shear forces will occur anywhere when uniform axial load is applied. For an isotropic shell, an exact solution for the shell configuration satisfying this condition is presented. Because of the importance of transverse shear as a cause of delamination in composite materials, consideration is given to the case of a fiber reinforced shell.