Researches on spherical shell which is most usually applied have been completed by many investigators already and generalized numerical formula was derived. But the existent researches are limited to those on spherical shell with isotropic or orthotropic roof stiffness, periodic distribution of roof stiffness that can be caused by spherical and latticed roof system is not considered. Therefore, the object of this study is to develop a structural analysis program to analyze spherical shells that have periodicity of roof stiffness distribution caused by latticed roof of large space structure, grasp buckling characteristics and behavior of structure.

Research about spherical shells been applying most usually is achieved by many investigators already and generalized equation has been derived. But, existent research is limited in case that spherical shell's roof rigidity is isotropy or orthotropy, and research that consider periodicity of rigidity-distribution that can happen by doing spherical shell's roof system by lattice system is not gone entirely. The purpose of this paper is applying Galerkin method to spherical shell that model periodicity of roof rigidity distribution that appear by roof lattice form of large space structure and develop structural analysis program that formularize. Rigidity-model of this research selects that of spherical shell which has 2-way grid. In this paper, buckling-strength and deformation distribution of isotopic spherical shell and 2-way grid spherical shell obtained by developed program could confirm the reliability by comparison with result of existent research.

It is often hard to obtain analytical solutions of boundary value problems of shells. Introducing some approximations into the governing equations may allow us to get analytical solutions of boundary value problems. Instead of an analytical procedure, we can apply a numerical method to the governing equations. Since the governing equations of shells of revolution under symmetric load are expressed by ordinary differential equations, a numerical solution of ordinary differential equations is applicable to solve the equations. In this paper, the governing equations of orthotropic spherical shells under symmetric load are derived from the classical theory based on differential geometry, and the analysis is numerically carried out by computer program of Runge-Kutta methods. The numerical results are compared to the solutions of a commercial analysis program, SAP2000, and show good agreement.