General Imperfection Analysis in Shallow Arches

The problem of buckling of uniformly loaded shallow circular arches has been reformulated to account for possible imperfections related to load distribution, shape of arch axis, and support conditions. The resulting equations, which are exact in the shallow arch sense, have been reinterpreted from an asymptotic viewpoint. Two simple approximate formulas have thus been obtained which express the critical load of the arch as a function of seven different imperfection parameters. A limited comparison with exact results suggests that the proposed asymptotic relationships would provide satisfactory accuracy for a reasonably broad spectrum of arches.