| Abstract: | A series of eight mild steel domes subjected to internal pressure were tested up to burst in order to verify optimal solutions obtained by a zero order optimisation subroutine and a stress analysis code. Four classes of minimum weight domes were obtained. The first one was sought within torispherical shells of constant wall thickness. The second case corresponded to a variable meridional profile described by a generalised ellipse and a given wall thickness. In the third case, the uniform wall thickness became an additional design variable. In the fourth case both the meridional shape and variable wall thickness along the meridian were used as design variables. The plastic load was greater than 20 MPa in all four cases. The weight reduction obtained for the above mentioned four cases was 18, 19, 27 and 31%, respectively. Comparison with the fully stressed design is also provided. |
