Axisymmetric nonlinear analysis of shallow spherical shells by a combined boundary element and finite difference method

This paper is concerned with the development of the mixed boundary element method and finite element method for the analysis of spherical annular shells under axisymmetric loads. The boundary element techniques are used to solve the equilibrium equation of shells and the central difference operator is adopted to deal with the compatibility equations. Iterative techniques are used throughout the analysis procedure. A number of numerical examples are given in the paper to illustrate the validity of the present approach.