ABSTRACT
Thin-shell structures are widely used in many branches of engineering. Examples include aircraft, spacecraft, cooling towers, nuclear reactors, steel silos and tanks for storage of bulk solids and liquids, pressure vessels, pipelines and offshore platforms, though the latter are largely deemed to be outside the scope of this book. The class of shells covered here is very thin, so failure by buckling is often the controlling design criterion. It is therefore essential that the buckling behaviour of these shells is properly understood so that suitable design methods can be established.
