Qualitative properties of large buckled states of spherical shells (Q1079398)

The authors use a geometrically exact director theory to present the governing equations for the large axisymmetrical deformation of nonlinearly elastic spherical shells. These equations are a quasilinear sixth order system of ordinary differential equations. A global bifurcation theorem for nontrivial branches of solutions characterized by their nodal properties is given. The practical significance of this result is given by the fact that from a theoretical point of view it allows to exclude certain (spurious ?) solutions which can be and have been found in a numerical analysis.