Buckling of a Complete Spherical Shell Under Uniform External Pressure

Axisymmetric buckling of a complete spherical shell under uniform external pressure is treated by the spectral method. Among other results the lower critical pressures of 7% and 5% of classical linear buckling pressures are computed for radius‐thickness ratios of 100 and 200 respectively. Both symmetric (non‐physical) and non‐symmetric buckling are computed. The non‐symmetric buckled shapes at the two lower critical pressures mentioned are virtually identical.