Collapse of Inverted Hemi-Ellipsoidal Shell Domes Under Uniform Pressure

Nine hemi-ellipsoidal shell domes were tested to destruction, under uniform pressure acting on their concave surfaces. The shell domes varied from flat oblate hemi-ellipsoids to long prolate hemi-ellipsoids. The experimentally obtained collapse pressures showed that the flat oblate hemi-ellipsoidal domes and the long prolate hemi-ellipsoidal domes were stronger than the hemi-spherical and near hemi-spherical domes. The theoretical analysis was based on the finite-element method, and it showed that the theoretically obtained stresses were, in general, larger in magnitude than the experimentally obtained stresses.