Thin metallic shells find application mainly in aerospace and rocket industries, in the form of cylindrical, spherical & conical shapes. Different types of analytical, numerical & experimental studies have been carried out to firm up the load carrying capabilities by cylindrical and spherical shells. The conical shells, specially dished type shells undergo a special type buckling phenomenon similar to arches, which needs to be studied in detail. In this article a numerical analysis is carried out to investigate the effect of thickness and boundary condition on load carrying capability and mode shape of dished shallow shells under uniform pressure. It is found that mode shape changes with increase in thickness of shell and results in a significant increase in critical load.

Keywords: Thin shells, Critical load, Conical shell, Dished shell.