A Survey of Research on the Stability of Hydrostatically Loaded Shell Structures Conducted at the David Taylor Model Basin

Experimental and theoretical studies have been carried out to investigate the stability of ring-stiffened cylinders and hemispherical shells under hydrostatic pressure. The use of accurately machined models has been found extremely valuable in improving the quality of experimental data, thereby permitting a more careful examination of theory. As a result, the effects of boundary conditions and other factors usually masked by the influence of structural imperfections have been clarified.

So far these studies have caused the investigators to regard classical small-deflection theory with increasing confidence.