Buckling of spherical shells with pitting corrosion under external pressure

The buckling characteristics of spherical shells with uniform and randomly distributed pitting corrosion under external pressure were investigated. Ten spherical shells were fabricated from 304 stainless steel sheets, and cylindrical holes were introduced into the outside surface of the spherical shell by milling to simulate pitting corrosion. Six spherical shells with uniform pitting corrosion and four spherical shells with random pitting corrosion were fabricated. The wall thickness, diameter, and geometry of each spherical shell test model were measured and compared with those of the ideal model. The buckling load of the ten spherical shells with pitting corrosion was obtained experimentally. The effects of the pitting shape, size and distribution area of local corrosion on the buckling behaviour of a spherical shell were carefully analyzed. In addition, the numerical results were compared with the experimental results to verify the accuracy of the numerical model.