Lateral Buckling of Grid-Stiffened Composite Annular Spherical Shells

The present paper investigates the buckling behavior of grid-stiffened composite annular spherical shells with geodesic lattice cores subjected to external pressure, using analytical and numerical approaches. Using a smeared stiffener technique, the grid structure is transformed into an equivalent composite layer. To achieve the overall stiffness of the grid-stiffened shell, the stiffness of the stiffeners should be superimposed by the stiffness of the shells. The governing equations are formulated based on the classical Donnell’s thin shell theory. The Galerkin method has been applied to extract the buckling loads. To corroborate the analytical results, a finite element model is provided. The comparisons indicate satisfactory agreement between the two approaches. Moreover, the effect of meridian angle, stiffener orientation, and skin thickness are investigated. The results obtained are new and can be used for future studies.