373

Buckling of shallow dished ends under external

pressure-a caveat
G D Galletly, ScD, DEng, CEng, FIMechE, FICE
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Liverpool
The application of BS 5500 to the design of some shallow steel torispheres subjected to external pressure can result in safety factors
which are lower than the expected 1.5.Some examples in which this occurs with elastic, perfectly plastic steels having yield points in the
range IS0 N/mm2 < gyp,<400 N/mm2 are given in the present note. Results are also given which show how the collapse pressures
increase when linear strain hardening is included in the analysis.
For shallow aluminium torispheres, the Code rules seem safe but, since elastic buckling of the imperfect spherical cap may often be the
controlling failure mode, the designs can be rather ineficient in the use of material.
Experiments on externally pressurized shallow torispheres having relatively low yield points are desirable in order to develop satisfactory buckling design rules for both the knuckle and the spherical cap regions of these dished ends.
NOTATION

D
E

9
K
L

is the elastic buckling pressure of a perfect spherical

shell,

diameter of cylindrical shell

modulus of elasticity
plastic modulus (see Fig. 6)
nominal design strength (BS 5500)

(4)

PC&

PC

PC,

PD
PYP

Rs
t

6,
A

II

OYP

length of cylindrical flange

theoretical collapse pressure of a perfect clamped
torispherical shell, from BOSOR 5
elastic buckling pressure of a perfect spherical shell
[ = 1.21E(t/RS)]
allowable design pressure (BS 5500)
yield pressure of a spherical shell [ = 2(t/R,)oyP]
toroidal (or knuckle) radius of torisphere (see Fig.
1)
radius of spherical portion of torisphere
thickness of shell, assumed uniform throughout
amplitude (inwards) of radial geometrical imperfection at the pole
PD/Pyp
.J(Pyp/Pcf) = & / K )
yield point of material

Note: 1 MPa

1 N/mm2 = 145 lbf/in2.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the design of externally pressurized torispheres (see

Fig. l), Section 3.6 of BS 5500 (1) utilizes a plot similar
to that shown in Fig. 2. The abscissae, K , and the ordinates, A, in Fig. 2 are given by

is the limit pressure of a perfect spherical shell, and

pD = allowable design pressure

The curve shown in Fig. 2 is based on a lower bound

of the test results to which a safety factor (between 1.5
and 1.7) has then been applied. More information on
the technical background to the external pressure
section of BS 5500 may be found in reference (2).
It will be observed, from the above equations for pCr
and pyq, that only the radius of the spherical portion of
the tonsphere, R , , appears in the formulae while r. the
radius of the toroidal part (that is, the knuckle), does
not. For relatively deep torispheres, this omission might
be acceptable but for shallow torispheres (that is those
with small values of r/D) the controlling failure mode
may be in the knuckle rather than the spherical cap.
Some recent theoretical calculations on externally
pressurized hemispheres and torispheres with axisymmetric imperfections in them (3) have, in some cases,
shown a considerable difference in their collapse pressures. For a value of 6,/t = 0.166, these theoretical
results are shown in Fig. 3, where
Spherical cap

TONSor
knuckle

K = -Pcr

(1)

Cylinder

PYP

A = - PD
PYP

where
pcr = 1.24;)

The M S wus received on 27 March 1987 and was uccepted for publication on 19
June 1987.

104/87 @ IMechE 1987

0263/7154/87 $2.00 + .05

\i

Fig. 1 Geometry of a torispherical shell

Proc Instn Mech Engrs Vol 201 No C5