14

J.G. Teng and J.M. Rotter

at a boundary or xture which can itself substantially affect the strength, especially if it restrains the shell against certain buckling displacements. The column support beneath a cylinder is such a problem. Teng and Rotter (1991a) appear to have been the rst to investigate the nonlinear buckling behaviour of columnsupported cylinders numerically, quickly followed by several other studies (Ramm and Butcher 1991; Rotter et al. 1991; Guggenberger 1991; Teng and Rotter 1992b; Dhanens et al. 1993; She and Rotter 1993; Rotter 1993). Later extensions of these studies by Guggenberger (1996b), Li (1994), Li and Rotter (1996) and Guggenberger et al. (2000) have expanded our understanding considerably. A more complete discussion is given in Chapter 3.

Foundation settlement Uneven foundation settlement beneath the wall of a ground-supported tank or silo gives rise to a different local stress condition, with displacement-controlled high local stresses if the tank is anchored, but relatively small stresses if it is unanchored (Palmer 1992; Hornung and Saal 1997). Several research groups have contributed to the literature on this problem (Greiner 1980; Holst et al. 1996b; Jonaidi and Ansourian 1997, 1998; Lancaster et al. 2000). A more complete discussion with a new interpretation is given in Chapter 4.

Silos under unsymmetrical patch loads or eccentric discharge The loads exerted by stored solids on silo walls are particularly complicated and difcult to predict (Nielsen 1998). These pressures can be very unsymmetrical and are often represented by local patch loads. The most severe form of pressure distribution is that due to eccentric discharge. Many buckling failures have been caused in metal silos in service due to this loading condition, which may occur unexpectedly. Relatively few research studies have been undertaken of buckling under eccentric discharge, the rst attempt that involved only a linear shell analysis being that of Rotter (1986b). Experiments were reported by Rotter et al. (1989) and further development of the theoretical basis was produced by Rotter (2001). A buckling criterion proposed by Rotter (1986b) was adopted into the Eurocode for silos (ENV 1993-4-1 1999) as a method of assessing the buckling strength in zones of local high axial compression. A remarkable study of silo shells subject to the patch load pressures dened in different standards was performed by Song and Teng (2002), who showed that nonlinear analysis led to a substantial increase in the assessed buckling strength. They also found large discrepancies between the effects of the patch loads dened by different standards to represent the same phenomena, and large discrepancies between the results of different methods of assessing the buckling strength. They concluded that patch loads give a poor representation of the effects of eccentric discharge. In this context, it is fortunate that the forthcoming revised Eurocode on