Axial Buckling of Isotropic Cylindrical Steel Shells with Local Corrosion

Thin-walled cylindrical steel shells are commonly used in constructing different civil structures. Steel silos and steel tanks are two important examples. These shells may experience major axial compressive stresses during their service life. Due to small wall thickness, they are potentially susceptible to axial buckling. It is known that the buckling capacity is closely related to the shell wall thickness. Corrosion shall reduce the thickness of shells in a uniform or non-uniform manner. It may also occur in local areas or involve all parts of the shell wall. Accordingly, in the current paper as a preliminary study, the effect of corrosion considered by local thinning of the shell wall on axial buckling of steel cylindrical shells has been investigated. To this end, non -linear Finite Element (FE) analyses were used. The results obtained highlight the detrimental effect of local corrosion on buckling resistance of these structures that may even surpass the other unfavorable effects such as imperfections.

Keywords:

Steel cylindrical shells , Local corrosion , Axial buckling , Imperfection , Abaqus