Application of linear buckling sensitivity analysis to economic design of cylindrical steel silos composed of corrugated sheets and columns

The paper deals with global stability of steel cylindrical silos composed of corrugated walls and vertical columns with loads imposed by a bulk solid following Eurocode 1. The optimum silo design with respect to the steel weight was based on a sensitivity analysis method. The corrugated walls were simulated as an equivalent orthotropic shell and vertical thin-walled columns as beam elements. The results were compared with the Eurocode 3 approach and verified by FE results of linear buckling and non-linear analyses with geometric and material non-linearity carried out with the commercial finite element code ABAQUS for a 3D shell model of a perfect silo.