Keywords
Stiffener ring, cylindrical shell, wind loading, shell buckling
Presentation Type
Talk
Research Abstract
Cylindrical shells such as aboveground steel storage tanks are widely used to store gases, chemicals and fuels. Stiffener rings are introduced to prevent cylindrical shells from buckling due to wind loads. The current top wind stiffener design rules used in the USA for such cylindrical storage tanks are specified in API 650. However, the design methodology of top stiffener rings is overly conservative. Therefore, relaxation of the design rules for the top stiffener is investigated in this study. The API 650 mandated top stiffener size was reduced to the same size as the mandated intermediate stiffener ring in this study. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to perform simulations for different tank models to obtain buckling loads. Geometrically nonlinear analysis including imperfections (GNIA) was also introduced to imitate realistic behaviors. The buckling loads were found to be larger than the required design pressure. This study found that for cylindrical tanks that require one intermediate stiffener, the size of the top stiffener can be reduced to the same size as the intermediate stiffener: producing more economical designs.
Session Track
Materials and Structures
Recommended Citation
Tianlong Sun, Eyas Azzuni, and Sukru Guzey,
"Buckling of Cylindrical Shells under Wind Loading"
(August 3, 2017).
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium.
Paper 35.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/surf/2017/presentations/35
Included in
Buckling of Cylindrical Shells under Wind Loading
Cylindrical shells such as aboveground steel storage tanks are widely used to store gases, chemicals and fuels. Stiffener rings are introduced to prevent cylindrical shells from buckling due to wind loads. The current top wind stiffener design rules used in the USA for such cylindrical storage tanks are specified in API 650. However, the design methodology of top stiffener rings is overly conservative. Therefore, relaxation of the design rules for the top stiffener is investigated in this study. The API 650 mandated top stiffener size was reduced to the same size as the mandated intermediate stiffener ring in this study. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used to perform simulations for different tank models to obtain buckling loads. Geometrically nonlinear analysis including imperfections (GNIA) was also introduced to imitate realistic behaviors. The buckling loads were found to be larger than the required design pressure. This study found that for cylindrical tanks that require one intermediate stiffener, the size of the top stiffener can be reduced to the same size as the intermediate stiffener: producing more economical designs.