Influence of bulk solids on the buckling strength of silo shells

Paper deals with a problem of buckling of cylindrical silo shells. Fully non-linear FE-analyses were carried out with an empty steel silo shell and with a silo shell containing sand using a commercial FE-code Abaqus. The intention of quasi-static FE-studies was to investigate the effect of different geometric imperfections on the buckling strength of an empty silo shell and to estimate the effect of the bulk solid inside of the silo on the buckling strength. The effect of different FE-meshes and load increments on results was also studied. The silo walls were modeled with an elasto-ideally plastic law by von Mises and the cohesionless sand was described by means of the theory of elasticity and elasto-plasticity using a linear Drucker-Prager yield criterion.