文档介绍：Structural Engineering and Mechanics, Vol. 13, No. 5 (2002) 000-000 1
Imperfection sensitivity to elastic buckling of wind
loaded open cylindrical tanks
Luis A. Godoy†
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez,
Puerto Rico, PR 00681-9041, USA
Fernando G. Flores‡
Structures Department, National University of Córdoba, P. O. Box 916, Córdoba, Argentina
Abstract. This paper considers the buckling and post-buckling behavior of empty metal storage tanks
under wind load. The structures of such tanks may be idealized as cantilever cylindrical shells, and the
structural response is investigated using putational model. The modeling employs a doubly curved
finite element based on a theory by Simo and coworkers, which is capable of handling large
displacements and plasticity. Buckling results for tanks with four different geometric relations are
presented to consider the influence of the ratios between the radius and the height of the shell (R/L), and
between the radius and the thickness (R/t). The studies aim to clarify the differences in the shells
regarding their imperfection-sensitivity. The results show that thin-walled short tanks, with R/L =3,
display high imperfection sensitivity, while tanks with R/L = are almost insensitive to imperfections.
Changes in the total potential energy of tanks that would buckle under the same hig