The present paper discusses an estimation procedure for the elasto-plastic buckling loads of the cylindrical shell roofs under non-uniform loadings and with geometrical imperfections. Firstly, the method to find the target member which is considered as the most important one to estimate the elasto-plastic buckling loads, is proposed. Then, the elasto-plastic buckling loads are plotted on the plane with two axes;one is the ordinate normalized by the axial force at elasto-plastic buckling load and the other is the abcissa generalized as slenderness ratio of the target member. Consequently. it is confirmed that the elasto-plastic buckling loads under non-uniform loading can be effective1y estimated by use of the column buckling axial force curve in terms of the generalized slenderness ratio.
