Journal of Constructional Steel Research 57 (2001) 569580 www.elsevier.

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The inuence of circumferential weld-induced imperfections on the buckling of silos and tanks
Martin Pircher, Russell Bridge
*

School of Civic Engineering and Environment, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, PO Box 10, Kingswood, NSW 2747, Australia Received 22 November 1999; received in revised form 2 October 2000; accepted 21 November 2000

Abstract The load carrying behaviour of cylindrical thin-walled shell structures under axial load is strongly dependent on imperfections invariably caused by various manufacturing processes. Axisymmetric imperfections have been known to result in particularly severe reductions in strength. Imperfections in the vicinity of circumferential welds in steel silos and tanks fall into this category and therefore deserve special attention. A detailed bifurcation and postbuckling nite element analysis was performed on imperfect cylindrical shells. Special care was taken to model the weld-induced circumferential imperfection. The geometry was calibrated against data gained from measuring such imperfections on existing silos and residual stresses were taken into account. Interaction between neighbouring weld imperfections and the role of the strake height in this interaction was investigated. Weld-induced residual stresses were found to have a small strengthening inuence on the buckling load. Interaction between neighbouring imperfections was found to reduce the buckling strength of the structures. A post-buckling analysis was undertaken and an explanation of the load-carrying behaviour of the structure after initial bifurcation was given. 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Axial load; Buckling; Imperfections; Post-buckling; Residual stresses; Shells; Silos; Strength; Tanks; Welding

1. Introduction In the 1930s, external surfaces of aircraft started to be manufactured from thin sheet metal and were made load-bearing. Experiments led to the discovery that buck* Corresponding author. E-mail address: r.bridge@uws.edu.au (R. Bridge).
0143-974X/01/$ - see front matter 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 4 3 - 9 7 4 X ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 2 7 - 4

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ling failure loads of circular cylindrical thin-walled shells were often far less than their predictions based on classical buckling theory. Early research by von Karman et al. [1] demonstrated the detrimental effect that imperfections can have on the buckling strength of cylindrical thin-walled shell structures. As axisymmetric imperfections do not generally occur in aircraft structures, their inuence on buckling was not investigated in depth until the 1970s [24]. However, for circular cylindrical steel shell structures such as silos or tanks, axisymmetric imperfections do occur during construction when rolled steel plates are formed into a series of individual strakes and joined together by circumferential welds. Circumferential deformations at each joint are partly caused by the rolling process and partly from weld shrinkage of the heated zone. A close look at the area in the immediate vicinity of this axisymmetric imperfection shows that the geometric imperfection is accompanied by various other interacting inuences (Fig. 1). Residual stresses result mainly from weld shrinkage and reach yield in the tension zone close to the weld. For equilibrium reasons, these tension stresses have to be accompanied by compression stresses further away from the weld. The properties of the ller material of the weld and the material in the heat affected zone may be different from the material properties of the actual shell structure. Overall deviations from the cylindrical shape also play a role in reducing the buckling strength of the structure even further. Moreover, each individual strake is typically not high enough to isolate the effects of one weld imperfection from its neighbours.

2. Modelling the imperfect cylinder 2.1. Cylinder geometry The study performed for this paper was based on the geometric properties of a silo in Port Kembla (Australia) on which weld imperfections have been carefully

Fig. 1.

Circumferential weld imperfection.

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measured [5]. Therefore, the steel silo for the study was represented by a cylinder of a radius R of 12 m and the wall thickness t was taken to be 12 mm. The strake height H of the silo in Port Kembla is 3 m. A single strake was taken into account and axial load was taken to be constant along this limited partition of the structure. Symmetry was assumed at the weld and only one buckle was actually represented in the computer model as shown in Fig. 2. 2.2. Depression shape The shape of these depressions has been the subject of quite some research. The following researchers proposed the shape functions shown in Fig. 3 where d is the radial deformation, t the wall thickness and x the axial co-ordinate: Rotter and Teng [6] proposed two different shape functions based on theoretical arguments (Rotter and Teng a and b) and used them in some of their work [6,7]. These shape functions were revised later [8] (Rotter nal and closed) on the basis of data gathered at the reference silo in Port Kembla using empirical techniques. More suggestions to describe the shape of such a weld-induced depression have been made by Bornscheuer et al. [9], White and Dwight [10], Fritschi [11] and Steinhardt and Schulz [12]. In addition to these shapes one more shape function was added which is based on a detailed FE-analysis of the shrinkage process of the weld [13].

Fig. 2.

Model of one buckle.

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Fig. 3.

Shape functions for a circumferential weld-induced imperfection.

2.3. Adjacent joints The strake heights typically used in silos or tanks are small enough to ensure interaction between adjacent weld imperfections. Rotter [8] suggested three patterns of interaction between neighbouring buckling strakes (Fig. 4). He showed that assuming symmetry at mid-strake height (SS) yields the highest buckling values and assuming anti-symmetry on both sides of the weld (AA) yields the lowest buckling values of the three patterns. This comes as no surprise as the AA buckling pattern is closest to the chess-board pattern observed in various experimental studies [14].

Fig. 4.

Strake mid-height boundary conditions and meridional buckling modes.

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2.4. Residual stresses Two papers are known to have considered circumferential welds in circular cylindrical shell structures including the effects of residual stresses [8,9]. These two papers reach different conclusions. Bornscheuer et al. [9] report a decrease of the buckling strength of their model by up to 10% while Rotter [8] concludes that Circumferential residual stresses in the welded joint, developed by shrinkage of the weld, appear to increase the buckling strength.... This latter paper follows a method of modelling the weld-shrinkage where a small section of the shell above and below the weld is subjected to a shrinkage strain equal to the yield strain. This strain load leads to stresses which the system attempts to relieve by deforming. Therefore the geometry of the weld depression changes by the application of residual strains. This approach was used in this paper where a study was undertaken to calibrate the initial shapes of the weld to achieve the desired shape of the weld depression after shrinkage. The strain eld was chosen in a way so that the resulting residual stress eld correlated to stress patterns suggested by Faulkner [15]. The effects of these residual stresses are reected in the results below. 2.5. FE-model Boundary conditions of the computer model were set as shown in Fig. 2 so that one single buckling wave was obtained. As a number of possible buckling modes lay within a very small difference in load several different buckling modes needed to be investigated to determine the mode with the smallest load that leads to failure. To determine the effects that residual stresses have on the buckling behaviour, two sets of models were investigated: 1. The rst set included stresses and deformations induced by weld shrinkage followed by the application of axial load. 2. The second set used the same induced weld deformations (ignoring the residual stresses) followed by the application of axial load. For the post-buckling analysis, models of a number of different buckling modes were taken past the initial bifurcation point and their post-buckling response was monitored. The overall response of the full structure was then pieced together utilising the post-buckling curves which follow the loaddeformation path corresponding to a minimum of total energy of the system. Finite Element code ABAQUS [16] was used for all computer investigations for this paper. 3. Results 3.1. Buckling modes A signicant aspect of the buckling behaviour of cylindrical thin walled systems under axial load is the close proximity of a number of different bifurcation points.

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Each bifurcation point corresponds to a different buckling mode. Obviously, the bifurcation point which requires the smallest load is the one of most interest. The buckling strength of an imperfect cylinder is commonly related to the classical elastic critical stress scl which is given by scl

t Et 0.605 R 3(1n )R
2

(1)

in which E is the elastic modulus and n is Poissons ratio taken as 0.3 for steel. In a rst analysis, several buckling modes were investigated for the stress-free model as well as for the model which included residual stresses. The results compared well with results gained by Rotter [8] and contradict the results of Bornscheuer et al. [9]. When residual stresses are considered in the buckling analysis, the critical load is slightly higher than in the stress-free systems of the same geometry. In the stress-free system, the weld is under meridional and circumferential compression up to the point of buckling under axial load. When residual stresses are considered, the weld is under circumferential tension and meridional compression up to the point of buckling. In this latter case as axial load is applied onto the cylinder, these residual circumferential tension stresses at the weld are reduced and the compressive circumferential stresses in the area away from the weld are increased. The tension stresses at the weld act as a tension ring and have a stabilising effect on the system which is gradually reduced as axial load is increased (Fig. 5). 3.2. Imperfection shape Several different shape functions were used to model the imperfection, keeping the depth to one wall-thickness. Using boundary condition AA the bifurcation load was determined and the inuence of weld-induced residual stresses on this bifurcation load was investigated for the weld geometries shown in Fig. 3. As can be seen in Fig. 6, the buckling load varies strongly depending on the shape function used. Buckling loads have been found to increase consistently when weld-induced residual stresses were taken into account. The amount of this strengthening effect of residual stresses varied, depending on the shape function. The number of circumferential buckling waves m varied between m=19 and m=22. The shape function proposed by Fritschi [11] (Figs. 3 and 6) has its greatest amplitude a distance of 15 wall thicknesses away from the actual strake. This feature could not be conrmed by any measured data of silos or tanks. Therefore, the second most conservative shape function (Rotter closed) was adopted throughout the rest of this study. 3.3. Strake height The height of each strake obviously inuences the interaction between neighbouring weld-imperfections. The effect of the strake height on the buckling strength is shown in Fig. 7 where the strake height is expressed as a ratio of the linear bending half-wave length l given by

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Fig. 5.

Circumferential stresses along one meridian.

l 4

3(1n )
2

Rt2.444Rt

(2)

For strake heights H2l, bifurcation loads for boundary conditions AA drop below the critical loads of a long cylinder with a single imperfection (large H/l values). A minimum is reached between H/l=3 and H/l=5. Buckling loads for longer strakes then rise asymptotically towards the loads of the long cylinder. Buckling loads for boundary conditions SS exceed those of the long cylinder except for very long strakes where boundary conditions lose their inuence. The strake height H=3.23l of the measured silo in Port Kembla lies within the region of minimum bifurcation loads and was therefore used in the following post-buckling investigation. 3.4. Post buckling behaviour Boundary conditions AA were used for a study of the post-buckling load carrying mechanism. The mean axial displacements and the axial load were used to derive the non-dimensional loaddeection curves shown in Fig. 8 where the load is expressed as a stress ratio of s/scl.

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Fig. 6.

Bifurcation loads for different shape functions.

Fig. 7.

Effect of strake height on the buckling strength.

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Fig. 8. Loaddisplacement curves.

3.4.1. Pre-buckling As axial load is increased in the pre-buckling phase, the structure responds axisymmetrically in a linear manner until buckling (Point A, Fig. 8). The imperfection induces axial bending in addition to the membrane forces causing points along the circumferential weld (i1 and o1 in Fig. 2) to deect inwards and points further away from the weld (i2, i3 and o2, o3 in Fig. 2) to deect outwards as shown in Fig. 9. Residual stresses keep the area in the vicinity of the weld under tension and thus stabilise the structure. 3.4.2. Post-buckling After the critical load has been reached, the behaviour of the structure is very unstable. The quasi-static nature of the analysis neglects any dynamic effects and is

Fig. 9.

Radial deformation at points i1, i2, i3, o1, o2, o3 (see Fig. 2).

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therefore only an approximation of the actual process. The initial buckling mode of m=21 (where m is the number of circumferential buckling waves) undergoes a number of transitions until it reaches the post-buckling minimum at m=15 where the load path nally becomes stable again (Point B, Fig. 8). At this stage, outward-facing folds between the dominating inward buckles have formed (BC in Fig. 10). These folds carry the majority of the compressive load and can be interpreted as secondary columns changing the system from a shell to essentially a folded plate structure. As these folds become more pronounced with increasing radial deformation, the second moment of inertia of these columns is also increased and the load carrying capacity of the structure rises again. If elastic material properties are assumed, the load can be further increased until these columns buckle and nal collapse of the structure takes place (CD in Fig. 10 and Point C in Fig. 8) in conjunction with the formation of secondary buckles. However, taking into account plasticity reduces this post-buckling maximum as plastic hinges form along the outward folds (Points B to D in Fig. 8 for elastic plastic steel).

4. Conclusion The paper studied the inuence of a localised circumferential imperfection at welded joints on the buckling behaviour of cylindrical thin-walled structures under axial load. A case study was undertaken that used the geometric properties of an existing silo in Port Kembla (Australia).

Fig. 10. Change of load bearing system.

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Interaction between neighbouring circumferential weld imperfections and the inuence of the strake height on this interaction was studied. It was found that the buckling resistance reaches a minimum for strake heights of three to ve times the linear bending half-wave length for the investigated cylinder geometry. Weld-induced residual stresses were taken into account and were found to have a small strengthening effect due to the tension zone in the close vicinity of the circumferential weld. Bifurcation loads for a number of shape functions describing the geometric deviations in the vicinity of the weld were compared and it was shown that for a given weld imperfection depth the buckling resistance varies greatly depending on the shape of the imperfection. A post-buckling analysis was undertaken utilising sector models of the full structure. The load carrying mechanism after buckling was investigated and a model for the post-buckling behaviour was developed. References
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