Experiments on welded shells with section alteration under axial and peripheral pressure

This research elaborates the interactive response of thin steel cylindrical shells under axial and uniform peripheral pressure. The method of the research was mainly experimental, which was evaluated against theoretical analyses of other studies and design standards. The geometric variable was applied as thickness variation in a stepwise manner whilst designing the specimens; this is seen in cylindrical shells employed as storage structures such as silos. The axial loading was applied as a constant pre-loading to all specimens, which followed by applying uniform pressure that increased until the initial buckling, global buckling (hereafter called buckling in this paper), and collapse of the specimens were observed.

The results underscored the significance of the slenderness on the capacity of the shells with varying thicknesses. For shells with lower slenderness values of the bottom strake(s), a more stable post-buckling response was identified. These specimens experienced somewhat symmetric formation of the buckling lobes compared to the specimens with a single strake. The capacity rise was also evaluated against the mass gain, and for some specimens, an insignificant mass gain led to a remarkable capacity gain.