Analysis of non-linear behaviour of imperfect shallow spherical shells on pasternak foundation by the asymptotic iteration method

This paper presents a non-linear analysis of elastically restrained imperfect shallow spherical shells on pasternak foundation. By adopting the asymptotic iteration method (AIM), an analytical expression concerning the external load and the central deflection of the shell is derived in a non-dimensional form. The solution incorporates the effects of involved parameters, such as geometrical imperfection, extensional and shear moduli of foundation and edge-restraint coefficients as well as structural geometry, and it can be used effectively to perform buckling analysis of such structures. For some classical boundary conditions, the resulting solution has been compared with data available resulting from various approximate methods including Alpha, Berger's method, modified Berger's method, Sinharay and Banerjee's approach and Galerkin's method. The evaluation of the effects of these parameters on critical buckling loads is made numerically. The results show that the present solution can be considered as a more exact solution for determination of non-linear behaviour of such structures