Elastic-Plastic Unstable Deformation of Shells in Contact : (Case of a Spherical Shell)

Abstract

This paper deals with the numerical analysis of large elastic-plastic deformation of shells in contact with each other. The penalty function method is used accurately to treat the contact condition involving a finite amount of sliding. Axisymmetric large deformations of contacting spherical shells are analyzed, and it is shown that elastic unloading resulting from the sliding definitely affects the crushing of one shell by another. The possibility of nonaxisymmetric bifurcation of deformation is examined on the basis of the J2-deformation theory.