Analysis of laminated and sandwich spherical shells using a new higher-order theory

In the present study, a fifth-order shear and normal deformation theory using a polynomial function in the displacement field is developed and employed for the static analysis of laminated composite and sandwich simply supported spherical shells subjected to sinusoidal load. The significant feature of the present theory is that it considers the effect of transverse normal strain in the displacement field which is eliminated in classical, first-order and many higher-order shell theories, while predicting the bending behavior of the shell. The present theory satisfies the zero transverse shear stress conditions at the top and bottom surfaces of the shell. The governing equations and boundary conditions are derived using the principle of virtual work. To solve the governing equations, the Navier solution procedure is employed. The obtained results are compared with Reddy's and Mindlin's theory for the validation of the present theory.