200

R. Greiner and W. Guggenberger

Equivalent uniform pressure qu qw Wind-ward side Direction Stagnation zone Wind Leeward side

Figure 7.1 Wind pressure distribution.

This behaviour is illustrated in Fig. 7.5, where the ratio qw /qu is plotted over the parameter = mcr . It shows that in the range of longer or more slender cylinders, that is, mcr < 10, wind buckling is inuenced by effects that are not covered by the investigations discussed earlier. In code regulations, as given in DIN 188004 (1990) or Eurocode 3-1.6 (1999), the actual wind pressure amplitide qw is formally replaced by an equivalent uniform external pressure qu , which is calculated by using the reciprocal value of Eq. (1) as load reduction factor (Fig. 7.1). Therefore, wind pressure may be directly combined with additional uniform negative pressure created by internal suction effects, frequently to be taken into account in tank design. Further on, this concept was also adopted for cylinders with stepped wall thickness by replacing mcr in Eq. (1) by the appropriate value of the shell with stepped wall thickness as specied in code regulations.

Long and slender cylinders

As shown in Figs 25, the buckling behaviour of wind-loaded cylinders changes signicantly in that range of geometrical parameters, which is related to circumferential buckling wave numbers less than about 10. In this range of geometry the circumferential compression is not the only dominating physical effect, but there are also additional increasing membrane forces due to the overall loadcarrying behaviour of cylinders with greater length, that is, greater slenderness. These cause a steep drop of the curve of the buckling resistance with increasing length. A report on numerical studies of this problem is given by Greiner and Derler (1995). It shows that buckling occurs in the mid-height region of the shell in the stagnation zone, initiated by the axial compression stresses acting there. Realistic results require the use of geometrically non-linear analyses of the imperfect