International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26

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Buckling behaviour of large steel cylinders with patterned welds

A. Hübner a, J.G. Teng b,*, H. Saal a
a
Lehrstuhl für Stahl- und Leichtmetallbau, Universität Karlsruhe, D-76128 Karlsruhe Germany
b
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Received 17 August 2004; received in revised form 19 August 2005; accepted 18 October 2005

Abstract

Steel silos and tanks are commonly constructed by welding together a large number of curved steel panels. The panels are first connected with
short meridional welds to form circular strakes (or courses), which are then connected by continuous circumferential welds to form the entire shell
wall. Associated with the large number of welds are welding-induced shrinkage deformations and residual stresses, both of which may have a
significant effect on the buckling strength of the shell wall. In this paper, a simple method for the simulation of the weld depressions and associated
residual stresses is first introduced. The results of a series of finite element buckling analyses of a typical steel cylinder with such simulated
welding effects are next presented and discussed, leading to a number of significant conclusions. One of these conclusions is that a weld depression
pattern produced using the present weld simulation method can offer a suitable equivalent imperfection form for use in the non-linear analysis of
shells for stability design, as it leads to buckling loads in close agreement with predictions by the new European code for steel shell structures.
q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Buckling; Cylindrical shells; Silos; Tanks; Weld depressions; Residual stresses; Geometric imperfections

1. Introduction Existing studies on the buckling strength of such shell walls

Steel silos, tanks and other large civil engineering steel shell
structures are commonly constructed by welding together a
large number of curved panels (Fig. 1). The panels are first
connected with short meridional welds to form strakes
(or courses), which are then connected by continuous
circumferential welds to form the entire shell wall. The
circumferential positions of the meridional welds in one strake
are usually offset from those in the adjacent strakes by half a
panel width. In this paper, such welds are referred to as
patterned welds for brevity where appropriate. Associated with
the large number of welds are welding-induced shrinkage
deformations (or weld depressions or geometric imperfections)
and residual stresses, both of which may have a significant
effect on the buckling strength of the shell wall [1]. While
local depressions at welds may have contributions from
other sources such as the plate rolling process [2,3], in this
study, only depressions from welding-induced shrinkage are
considered, as they are believed to be the predominant
component.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: C86 852 2766 6012; fax: C86 852 2334 6389.
E-mail address: cejgteng@polyu.edu.hk (J.G. Teng).
0308-0161/$ - see front matter q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijpvp.2005.10.003
with the welded joints explicitly considered have been
predominantly concerned with their buckling strength under
axial compression. As a result, researchers [2–10] have
focussed their attention on the effect of continuous circumfer-
ential weld depressions on buckling strength, with the
meridional welds considered to be unimportant. These studies
have led to the conclusion that the circumferential weld
depressions are severely detrimental and lead to the lowest
buckling strength among practically credible forms of
imperfections. The effect of associated residual stresses has
also been examined [3,6,11] and has been shown to be much
smaller than that of the associated geometric imperfections
though still significant. This effect has been found to be
beneficial by recent studies [3,6,11], although an early study
[4] found this effect to be detrimental.
While buckling under axial compression is often the
controlling failure mode, in general, the shell wall in steel
silos and tanks also needs to be designed against failure under
other loading conditions such as external pressure, for which
the meridional welds in the shell wall may have an important
effect. Indeed, for a general case of loading, which may involve
the combination of a number of fundamental loading
conditions or a non-uniform loading condition which gives
rise to significant values of all three membrane stresses, the
buckling strength is likely to depend on the weld depressions
and residual stresses associated with both the meridional and
14 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26
Fig. 1. Silo (left) and tank (right) under construction with pattern welds.
the circumferential welds. This paper therefore presents the
results of a recent numerical study into the buckling behaviour
of steel cylinders considering both the meridional and the
circumferential welds. In this study, a two-stage analysis was
adopted in which the first stage involves the simulation of the
welding process to determine the weld depressions and residual
stresses, which are then used in the second stage in which a
non-linear buckling analysis is conducted. Only the main
results of the study are reported with the emphasis being placed
on the buckling behaviour, but further details can be found
elsewhere [12].
2. Simulation of welding
2.1. General
The welding process is complicated, and the accurate
predictions of local variations of welding-induced residual
stresses is still an active subject of research (e.g. [13,14]). For
the present purpose of evaluating the effect of welding-induced
imperfections and residual stresses on the buckling behaviour,
the use of overly elaborate approaches for modelling the
welding process is not necessary as the computational cost
needs to be kept reasonably low and the buckling behaviour is
believed to be not sensitive to highly localized stress variations.
For the present purpose, a simple view of the welding
process is believed to be adequate, in which the consequence of
the welding process is described in terms of the shrinkage
deformations and residual stresses resulting from the cooling
stage only [12]. During cooling, tensile residual stresses are set
up in the highly heated area whose shrinkage is hindered by the
colder parts where compensating compressive residual stresses
develop. Since the shrinkage depressions and residual stresses
are results of the same process, a rational approach for
modelling the welding process for buckling analysis must
simulate the cooling process in some way. Two approaches are
currently available: the temperature history approach and the
shrinkage strain approach.
2.2. Temperature history approach
In the temperature history approach, a temperature field
with very high temperatures (e.g. 900 8C) in the vicinity of the
weld is imposed at the beginning of the analysis. The
temperatures are then allowed to reduce step by step to room
temperature. The change of the mechanical properties of steel
with temperature is taken into account. Pircher et al. [15] and
Banke et al. [11] recently used this method to obtain residual
stresses and shrinkage deformations due to a single circumfer-
ential weld. This method requires reliable information of
temperature-dependent material properties and an appropriate
temperature field [12].
2.3. Shrinkage strain approach
The initial shrinkage strain approach is another approach for
simulating the welding process for the resulting weld
depressions and residual stresses. In this approach, initial
strains are imposed in a zone centred at the weld to simulate the
welding process, and so far a constant strain over the entire
zone has been used (i.e. the strain block is rectangular). This
approach has been used by Rotter [6], Holst et al. [16,17], and
Pircher and Bridge [3]. Despite the simplicity of the approach,
the resulting weld depressions and residual stresses are realistic
in form. This approach requires the definition of both the width
(width of the initial strain zone) and the height of the
rectangular strain block. The width of such a rectangular strain
block leads in most cases to a tension zone of nearly the same
width. By suitable choices of these two parameters, weld
depressions of desirable amplitudes and associated residual
stresses can be obtained, but researchers have so far used this
method to obtain only residual stresses for buckling analysis;
the resulting depressions were not directly used as their
amplitudes were often too small due to the use of relatively
small shrinkage strains. For example in Ref. [6] a constant
initial strain equal to the yield strain in a zone which covers
50 mm on either side of the weld for a shell wall thickness of
12 mm was assumed. This initial strain block led to a weld
 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26
depression of around 2.5 mm in amplitude on an initial weld
depression profile with an amplitude of 9.48 mm.
2.4. Trapezoidal strain field approach
A comparison between these two approaches showed that
the shrinkage strain approach can closely approximate results
from the temperature history approach provided the width and
height of the initial strain block are appropriately chosen [12].
The shrinkage strain approach is therefore the preferred
approach given its simplicity. There is however a significant
disadvantage with the use of a rectangular strain block: there
are abrupt changes in the initial strain at the edges of the block.
As a result a very fine mesh needs to be used near the edges,
which can be a major disadvantage when a large number of
welds need to be simulated [12]. To overcome this deficiency, a
trapezoidal strain block centred at the weld was proposed
instead [12]. Fig. 2 shows a rectangular strain block with a
width of 8t (t is the shell wall thickness) and a trapezoidal block
with the same total strain loading.
The trapezoidal strain field is obviously more realistic
than a constant strain field considering the continuous
reduction of temperature away from the centre of the weld.
Of course, this strain block may be further refined by
having a smoothly varying distribution, but such refinement
is not believed to lead to significant further improvement.
With the use of the trapezoidal strain field, much fewer
elements need to be used for the same accuracy. The
predictions of such a trapezoidal model with suitable strain
block parameters were found in the present study [12] to
compare well with results from others including the
measured residual stresses given in Ref. [18]. A typical
comparison is given later in the paper for the example
cylinder with a single circumferential weld.
Using the trapezoidal strain field method, the depressions
and residual stresses in a cylinder with a large number of welds
can be easily simulated for use in subsequent buckling analysis.
The following sections present the results from such buckling
analysis to examine the effect of welding-induced depressions
and residual stresses on the buckling strength of an example
cylinder.
Fig. 2. Constant strain block with a width of 8t and equivalent trapezoidal strain block.
15
3. Example cylinder
A single cylindrical shell with realistic dimensions was
investigated in this study, as the issues being explored can all
be answered by examining the numerical results obtained for
this cylinder. This example cylinder has the following
dimensions: radius RZ12 m, thickness tZ12 mm and height
HZ15 m, leading to an R/t ratio of 1000. These dimensions are
the same as those of the thinnest part of the cylindrical shell in
the steel silos at the Port Kembla Grain Terminal in Australia,
which have been the subject of several previous studies
[6,10,19].
The chosen cylindrical shell consists of 5 circular strakes of
3 m in height, with each strake being made of six panels. The
meridional welds on one strake are offset from those on the
adjacent strakes by 308.
pffiffiffiffiffiThus, the meridional welds are spaced
at approximately 33 pRt ffiffiffiffi,ffi whilst the circumferential welds are
separated by nearly 8 Rt. The steel was assumed to be elastic-
perfectly plastic with an elastic modulus EZ200,000 N/mm2, a
yield stress syZ250 N/mm2 and a Poisson’s ratio nZ0.3. The
buckling behaviour of this cylinder was studied for four
common loading conditions, including three axisymmetric
loading conditions (axial compression alone, axial com-
pression with internal pressure, and external pressure) and
global shear. Global shear was studied instead of uniform
torsion as a shear dominated loading condition, as the former
can be more efficiently dealt with by the use of a half-cylinder
model while the latter requires the entire cylinder to be
modelled.
4. Finite element modelling
4.1. General
All finite element results presented here were obtained using
the general-purpose finite element program ABAQUS [20].
The general-purpose shell element S4 was used, as it was the
most robust of the shell elements provided within ABAQUS.
The meshes were chosen based on convergence studies to
ensure accurate predictions [12], taking into account the
localized nature of welds and wavelengths of the buckling
16 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26
modes. In particular, the need to model the response of the shell
in the first stage, in which the welding process is simulated by
an imposed shrinkage strain, required the use of very small
shell elements. As fine meshes had to be used, only a part of the
shell was analyzed. The shell segment and the related boundary
conditions adopted in the analyses differed depending on
whether an axisymmetric loading condition or global shear was
under consideration. For integration across the shell thickness,
the Simpson rule with nine integration points was adopted in all
analyses.
As mentioned earlier, the entire analysis consisted of two
stages of nonlinear analysis. The second stage analysis
involved a non-linear analysis with bifurcation checks along
the path so that both limit point buckling and bifurcation
buckling could be predicted. Bifurcation buckling was found to
be critical in most cases due to some inherent symmetry of the
imperfection form generated by the simulated welds. Both
geometric and material non-linearities were considered in both
stages of finite element analysis. The plasticity of the material
was modelled using the J2 flow theory. The accuracy of the
finite element results from ABAQUS was verified by
comparison with results from other sources before the
parametric study presented in this paper was conducted [12].
4.2. Axisymmetric loading conditions
For the three axisymmetric loading conditions, only a
segment of 608 was modelled to save computational effort,
covering the circumferential width of a single panel but the
entire height of the shell, with symmetry conditions imposed
along the two meridional edges. The inclusion of only one-
sixth of the shell is believed to be acceptable for the present
purpose as the buckling mode generally involves a large
number of circumferential waves for the loading conditions
considered here. Each weld was simulated by a trapezoidal
strain field with a base width of 12t (equivalent to a width of 8t
for a corresponding rectangular block) (Fig. 2) and an initial
strain magnitude of 5.5 times the yield strain. These parameters
have been proven to lead to a weld depression and residual
stresses comparable to those from the temperature history
approach using the temperature field of Pircher et al. [15].
In the first stage involving the simulation of welding
shrinkage, the same boundary conditions were used regardless
of the subsequent loading to be applied. During this first step,
both the top and bottom edges were restrained against all
Fig. 3. Weld depressions due to different patterns of welds; (a) Circumferential welds only; (b) meridional welds only; (c) patterned welds.
displacements and rotations except for the meridional
displacement and the meridional rotation. In addition, the
meridional displacement of a single node on one of the
meridional edges was restrained to avoid rigid body motion. It
should be noted that while these boundary conditions were
chosen to provide as close as possible an approximation to the
real assembly process, the real process involving the sequential
assembly of strakes places restraints on the shell which are
likely to be significantly different.
The boundary conditions adopted in the second stage of
analysis simulating the buckling failures were chosen based on
considerations of the particular loading condition. Under axial
compression with or without internal pressure, the buckling
analysis was carried out assuming full clamping for both ends
except that the top edge was allowed to have meridional
displacements. Under external pressure, the boundary con-
ditions used are the same as those used during the initial
shrinkage analysis. This corresponds to the classical definition
of a simple support for external pressure loading.
4.3. Buckling analysis under global shear
For the loading condition of global shear, a symmetric half
of the cylinder was modelled in the finite element analysis with
the imposition of symmetry conditions along the two
meridional edges, in order to model the shear buckling mode
correctly. For both analysis stages under global shear, the top
end nodes of the cylinder were joined to a rigid ring whose
movements were governed by the motion of a reference point
at the centre of the top ring. The shear force was applied to the
rigid ring at the reference point.
5. Welding induced deformations and residual stresses
Fig. 3 shows welding-induced deformations in the cylinder
for three situations from finite element analysis: circumfer-
ential welds only; meridional welds only; and patterned welds.
The amplitudes of the three weld depression patterns are
respectively: 1.02, 1.53 and 1.85t. Obviously, the amplitude is
increased through interaction between the meridional welds
and the circumferential welds.
Fig. 4 shows the residual stresses induced by the patterned
welds, where the residual stresses are normalized by the yield
stress sy. Along the centrelines of the welds, the residual
stresses in the direction of the weld are high and the peak
 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26
Fig. 4. Residual membrane stresses due to patterned welds; (a) meridional stresses; (b) circumferential stresses; (c) shear stresses.
values can exceed the yield stress slightly due to the two
dimensional nature of the stress states. This figure shows that
circumferential welds mainly cause circumferential residual
stresses while meridional welds mainly cause meridional
residual stresses and residual shear stresses.
To demonstrate that the initial strain parameters were
appropriately chosen, Fig. 5(a) shows the meridional profile of
the weld depression due to a single circumferential weld on the
example cylinder predicted by the present shrinkage strain
approach in comparison with various shapes proposed by
previous researchers [2,21–23]. Here, the weld depression
magnitude w at any arbitrary point is normalized by the weld
depression amplitude w0. It is clear that the weld depression
produced by the present approach with the chosen parameters
is close to shapes assumed or deduced by previous researchers.
The associated residual membrane stresses predicted by the
present shrinkage strain approach and by the temperature
history approach using the temperature and material property
data of Pircher et al. [15] are compared in Fig. 5(b), showing
close agreement.
6. Buckling behaviour
6.1. Buckling loads
Buckling loads were obtained for all four loading
conditions. For each loading condition, three weld depression
patterns (Fig. 3) were considered and for each weld depression
17
pattern, two cases were investigated: the residual stresses were
included or ignored (stress-relieved cylinder). The buckling
loads normalised by the corresponding classical buckling load
or the linear elastic buckling load of the perfect shell are given
in Table 1. For axial compression with or without internal
pressure, the classical buckling stress is calculated from the
following classical formula for a Poisson’s ratio n of 0.3:
t
scl Z 0:605E (1)
R
When the cylinder is subject to a uniform external pressure, the
classical linear buckling pressure is given by [24]:
R  t 2:5
qcr Z CBC 0:92E (2)
H R
in which CBC depends on the boundary conditions and is equal
to 1.0 for the case considered here [24]. Due to the use of a 608
segment in the finite element model, the finite element linear
elastic buckling load of the perfect shell is 9% higher than that
from the classical solution as the number of buckling waves
was forced by the imposed symmetry conditions along the
meridional edges to a buckling wave number of 12 instead of
14 as predicted by the following well-known equation [24]:
rffiffiffiffi
2 R Rp 4
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
mcr Z CM 36ð1Kn2 Þ (3)
H t
where H is the height of the shell and the parameter CMZp for
the present boundary conditions for the shell ends. As a
18 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26

Fig. 5. Comparison of deformed profile and residual stresses due to a single circumferential weld between the present shrinkage strain approach and other
approaches; (a) radial deformation; (b) residual stresses.

Table 1
Normalised finite element buckling loads

Axial compression Axial compression with internal External pressure Global shear
pressure
With residual Without With residual Without With residual Without With residual Without
stresses residual stresses residual stresses residual stresses residual
stresses stresses stresses stresses
Normalised by Eq. (1) Finite element analysis Finite element analysis
linear buckling
load from
Circumferential 0.340 0.260 0.495 0.445 1.010 0.855 1.045 0.955
welds
Meridional welds 0.370 0.305 0.715 0.760 0.780 0.600 0.935 0.990
Patterned welds 0.290 0.235 0.470 0.440 0.820 0.630 1.025 1.065
Eurocode predic- 0.226 0.445 0.750 (Class A) 0.750 (Class A)
tions for pat- 0.650 (Class B) 0.650 (Class B)
terned welds
 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26
consequence, the results in Table 1 for the case of uniform
external pressure were normalised by the finite element linear
elastic buckling load of the perfect shell.
For the case of axial compression with co-existent internal
pressure, the internal pressure p chosen corresponds to a value
of 0.25 for the following dimensionless internal pressure,
which is often used to characterize the level of internal
pressurization:
pR
p Z
tscl
This internal pressure was chosen to ensure that it has a
strengthening effect as at very high internal pressures, plastic
collapse occurs and the internal pressure reduces the axial
buckling strength [6,25].
For the case of global shear with the adopted boundary
conditions at the two ends, the shear buckling stress of a perfect
cylinder is that obtained for buckling under torsion [26]:
rffiffiffiffi
1 t
tcr Z 0:75ECt (5a)
uR
in which
H ity is consistent with previous research findings [28,29]. In fact,
u Z pffiffiffiffiffi
Rt
and
Ct Z 1:0 for
R (5c)
10% u% 8:7 ðmedium length cylindersÞ
t
which is the case for the investigated cylinder.
Mesh convergence studies showed that the shear buckling
problem is highly mesh-sensitive. The shear buckling stress
from the finite element analysis differs from that given by Eq.
(5a) by around 2%, although a very fine mesh was already used.
Hence, in deriving the normalised buckling loads of imperfect
shells presented in Table 1, the shear buckling stress of the
perfect cylinder obtained from the present finite element
analysis was used.
6.2. Effect of weld depressions alone on buckling loads
The effects of different weld depressions on buckling loads
can be revealed by a careful examination of results given in
Table 1. First, by comparing the buckling loads of the cylinder
under axial compression alone for the three depression
patterns, it can be concluded that the circumferential welds
lead to a more severe reduction in the buckling load than the
meridional welds. The meridional welds however also lead to a
low buckling load. The patterned welds considering the
interaction between the two types of welds lead to a small
additional reduction in the buckling load compared to the case
of circumferential welds only.
The addition of an internal pressure enhances the buckling
load significantly for all three weld depression patterns. The
highest increase is found for the case of meridional welds only.
19
These results are consistent with the well-known conclusion
that internal pressurisation is more beneficial for cylinders with
asymmetric imperfections than those with axisymmetric
imperfections [27]. The buckling loads for the cases of
circumferential welds and patterned welds are almost the
same, indicating that the addition of the meridional welds has
almost no effect on the buckling load under this loading
condition.
Under external pressure, a comparison of the buckling loads
(4) for the three depression patterns shows that the circumferential
welds have a small effect on the buckling load. On the other
hand, meridional welds have a much greater effect on the
buckling load, reducing the buckling load by 40%. Addition of
the circumferential welds to the meridional welds leads to a
very small increase in the buckling load. These results show
that the circumferential weld depressions, which have been
used as an equivalent imperfection form for axial compression
to derive realistically low buckling loads (e.g. [6,9]), cannot be
used for the same purpose in buckling analysis of cylinders
under external pressure.
In contrast to the other fundamental loading conditions, the
buckling strength of the shell under global shear is rather
insensitive to the three types of imperfections. This insensitiv-
(5b)
with the pattern weld depressions, the shear buckling strength
increases as a result of weld depressions (Table 1).
6.3. Effect of residual stresses on buckling loads
The results in Table 1 show that for most of the cases
considered here, the residual stresses have a beneficial effect as
has been found in previous studies (e.g. [6,30]). This effect
varies with the loading condition and the form of weld
depressions. An increase of around 30% is found for three
cases: axial compression with circumferential welds; external
pressure with meridional welds; and external pressure with
patterned welds. In cylinders under axial compression,
circumferential weld depressions alone lead to circumferential
compressive stresses in the vicinities of the welds [2] but the
associated residual stresses are tensile at and near the welds
(Fig. 4). The residual stresses are thus beneficial. Under
external pressure, the beneficial effect of the residual stresses
from the meridional welds is also mainly derived from the
longitudinal tensile stresses in the vicinities of the welds that
strengthen the cylinder. For the loading conditions of axial
compression with internal pressure and global shear, the
residual stresses have a much smaller beneficial effect or even a
detrimental effect on the buckling load; when only meridional
welds are present, the residual stresses lead to a 6% decrease in
the buckling load for both cases. Buckling of a cylinder with
meridional welds only under combined axial compression and
internal pressure is induced by the high axial stresses in the
segments between the welds and these stresses are increased by
the presence of residual stresses. Under global shear, the
residual stresses lead to a 4% reduction in the buckling strength
for the case of patterned welds. This reduction can be attributed
to the high residual shear stresses (Fig. 4(c)).
20 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26

6.4. Effect of residual stresses on buckling modes
The buckling mode may or may not be significantly affected
by the presence of residual stresses. All the buckling modes
shown in Figs. 6–9 are non-linear bifurcation modes obtained
at a load equal to or lower than the non-linear limit point load.
It should be noted that when a non-linear bifurcation analysis
delivers a buckling load equal to the limit point load of a non-
linear load-deformation analysis, it means that failure is by
limit point buckling and the bifurcation mode gives the
incremental mode of deformation at the limit point.
Fig. 6 shows the buckling modes of axially compressed
cylinders with or without the welding residual stresses. It is
seen that the residual stresses have little effect on the buckling
mode if only circumferential welds are present (Fig. 6(a) and
(b)). For the case of meridional welds only, the buckling mode
features very localised deformations at the centre of the
segment where there is a large inward depression (Fig. 3(b)) if

Fig. 6. Buckling modes under axial compression; (a) circumferential welds only, with residual stresses; (b) circumferential welds only, without residual stresses; (c)
meridional welds only, with residual stresses; (d) meridional welds only, without residual stresses; (e) patterned welds, with residual stresses; (f) patterned welds,
without residual stresses.
 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26
Fig. 7. Buckling modes under combined axial compression and internal pressure; (a) meridional welds only, with residual stresses; (b) meridional welds only,
without residual stresses.
residual stresses are ignored (Fig. 6(d)) but becomes a little less
localised when the residual stresses are considered (Fig. 6(c)).
Under combined axial compression and internal pressure,
the residual stresses again have only a small effect on the
buckling mode except for the case of meridional welds alone
(Fig. 7). In general, internal pressurization leads to buckles,
which are more elongated in the circumferential direction (e.g.
Figs. 6(c), (d) and 7(a), (b)).
Fig. 8 shows the buckling modes of cylinders subjected to
external pressure with or without the welding residual stresses.
A significant difference between the two modes can be seen for
the cylinder with patterned welds while the buckling modes for
cylinders with a single type of welds are not significantly
affected by residual stresses.
Under global shear, the buckling mode of the cylinder with
patterned welds may be significantly affected by the presence
of residual stresses (Fig. 9(e) and (f)). Again, for cylinders with
welds of a single type, the residual stresses do not have a
significant effect on the buckling mode (Fig. 9(a)–(d)).
7. Comparison with code predictions
The buckling loads predicted by the present finite
element buckling analyses are compared in Table 1 with
predictions by design rules in the recently developed
European code for steel shell structures [31], which forms
part of Eurocode 3 and is the most advanced design code
for steel shell structures in the world. In this code, shells
are classified into three quality classes according to
geometrical fabrication tolerance definitions. Three tolerance
parameters are used to judge quality: out-of-roundness,
accidental eccentricity and dimple depth. The only relevant
tolerance parameter for the present cylinder is the dimple
depth arising from weld shrinkage.
Even for the measurement of dimple depths alone, Eurocode
3 specifies five different gauge lengths of the measurement rod
(Fig. 10), each of which needs to be used at a given location.
Details of the defined gauge lengths can be found in
Eurocode 3. For the different gauge lengths lg, the measured
21
dimple depths Dw0 are assessed in terms of the following
dimple parameters U0:
U0x Z Dw0x =lgx U0w Z Dw0w =lgw
(6a)
U0q Z Dw0q =lgq
It should be noted that the first two parameters are applicable
when only axial compressive stresses are present, while the last
two parameters are applicable when only circumferential
stresses or shear stresses are present. All three parameters need
to be considered under combined stress states. These
parameters have to satisfy the following conditions with
U0,max from Table 2:
U0x % U0;max U0w % U0;max U0q % U0;max (6b)
In this study, the ‘measurements’ of the dimples were made
using two dimensional initial deformation plots of various
paths after the weld shrinkage. Applying the ‘gauges’ to the
plots, the dimple depths were read [12]. This method is not very
precise due to reading inaccuracy and the discrete nature of the
chosen paths, but these errors are small. The measurements of
the example silo led to the results shown in Table 3. By
comparing the dimple depths (Table 3) with tolerances
specified in this code (Table 2), the example cylinder was
found to belong to quality Class B when axial membrane
stresses are present in the shell but when only circumferential
membrane stresses or membrane shear stresses are present in
the shell, it belongs to Class A [12]. Here, the presence or
absence of a membrane stress component is determined on the
basis of the perfect shell geometry.
The buckling strengths of this cylinder based on the design
rules in this code were then determined and listed in Table 1. In
obtaining the code predictions, an extra safety factor in the
axial compression design rule used to account for effects such
as unintended non-uniform loading was ignored. It is
interesting to note that the numerical results for the stress-
relieved cases are very close to the code predictions for all
three axisymmetric loading conditions if the shell is assumed to
be of Class B fabrication quality. As a Class A shell under
22 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26

Fig. 8. Buckling modes under external pressure; (a) circumferential welds only, with residual stresses; (b) circumferential welds only, without residual stresses; (c)
meridional welds only, with residual stresses; (d) meridional welds only, without residual stresses; (e) patterned welds, with residual stresses; (f) patterned welds,
without residual stresses.

external pressure, the prediction of the code for the stress-
relieved cylinder is unconservative. The fact that the same shell
can fall into different classes of fabrication quality, depending
on the nature of stresses, may be an undesirable feature of the
present rules in ENV 1993-1-6 [31]. For example, the
fabrication quality class of the present example cylinder
changes from A to B when a small axial compression co-exists
with a large external pressure.
ENV 1993-1-6 [31] specifies that the stability design of a
steel shell can be carried out using a global numerical analysis,
 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26 23

Fig. 9. Buckling modes under global shear; (a) circumferential welds only, with residual stresses; (b) circumferential welds only, without residual stresses; (c)
meridional welds only, with residual stresses; (d) meridional welds only, without residual stresses; (e) patterned welds, with residual stresses; (f) patterned welds,
without residual stresses.

the most advanced type of which is the geometrically and
materially non-linear analysis with imperfections (GMNIA).
This approach offers a powerful alternative for problems for
which simple design rules have not been developed. The most
difficult issue in such a GMNIA analysis is the construction of
an equivalent imperfection, which is realistic (i.e. can be
associated with constructional details) and leads to buckling
loads comparable to those given by the code for simpler cases.
The comparison shown in Table 1 suggests that the present
imperfection consisting of meridional as well as circumfer-
ential weld depressions may be used as an equivalent
imperfection in non-linear stability analysis of cylindrical
shells under combined loads or a non-uniform loading
condition which gives rise to significant values of both the
meridional and circumferential membrane stresses, as it
possesses the required realism and severity on buckling
strength. Adopting the present shrinkage approach, this
equivalent imperfection can be easily and unambiguously
defined for buckling analysis of any large cylinder with many
welds.
The present results show that the effect of the weld
depressions on the buckling strength of a cylinder under global
shear is negligible. This is consistent with existing research,
which has shown that buckling under global shear shows very
24 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26

Fig. 10. Measurement of depths Dw0 of initial dimples (after ENV 1993-1-6 [31]).

limited sensitivity to imperfections [26,29]. However, the the weld depressions as an equivalent imperfection needs to be
relevant design rule in the European code does provide an further examined.
imperfection reduction factor for shear stresses similar to that
for the external pressure loading condition. This suggests that
the existing rule in Eurocode 3 for global shear is overly 8. Conclusions
conservative. Alternatively, this may be interpreted to mean
that if shear stresses are predominant, the appropriateness of This paper has presented a two-stage analysis method for
predicting the buckling strength of steel cylindrical shells with
a large number of welds as used in large steel silos and tanks. In
Table 2 the first stage, a simple trapezoidal initial strain field is
Values for dimple tolerance parameter U0,max specified to simulate the welding process to obtain the welding-
Fabrication tolerance quality class Description Value of U0,max
induced depressions and residual stresses, which are then used
in the second stage of analysis simulating the buckling failure.
Class A Excellent 0.006
The results from 24 buckling analyses of an example cylinder
Class B High 0.01
Class C Normal 0.016 have been presented, covering four loading conditions (axial
compression, axial compression with internal pressure,
external pressure, and shear) and three types of weld
depressions (circumferential welds only, meridional welds
only, and the combination of the two referred to as patterned
Table 3
Dimple depths and dimple parameters for the example silo
welds). While several assumptions had to be made in the
analyses, including the simultaneous shrinkage of all welds and
Direction Type Length (mm) Dw0 (mm) U0 the initial strain parameters, the following conclusions drawn
Meridional lgx 1518 11 0.0072 from the study are believed to depend little on these
lgw 300 3 0.0010 assumptions.
Circumferential lgx 1518 9.3 0.0061
lgw 300 1 0.0033
1. In all but three cases discussed in this paper, the welding-
lgq 496 2 0.0040
induced residual stresses have a beneficial effect on
 A. Hübner et al. / International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping 83 (2006) 13–26
the bucking strength. The degree of strength enhancement
depends on both the loading condition and the type of weld
depressions. For shells with patterned welds, the effect of
residual stresses can be conservatively ignored in numerical
buckling analysis for design use.
2. For shells with the residual stresses ignored, circumfer-
ential depressions alone are only slightly less detrimental
than combined circumferential and meridional depressions
due to patterned welds for the case of axial compression.
For the case of external pressure, meridional depressions
are the principal source of buckling strength reductions.
3. The weld depressions due to patterned welds lead to
buckling strengths in close agreement with those predicted
by design rules of the new European code for steel shell
structures for both cases of axial compression and external
pressure, although it has little effect on the buckling
strength of shells subjected to shear. This combined weld
depression pattern thus has the potential of being used as an
equivalent imperfection in nonlinear stability analysis of
cylindrical shells for design use, at least for cases
dominated by the meridional and circumferential mem-
brane stresses as a result of combined loading or a non-
uniform loading condition, as it has the attributes of both
the realism and the severity on buckling strength required
of a good equivalent imperfection [6].
Acknowledgements
The work presented herein forms part of the project
‘Buckling Strength of Axially Compressed Steel Cylinders
Built from Many Welded Panels’ supported by the Hong Kong
Research Grants Council (Project No. PolyU 5045/98E), with
additional support from The Hong Kong Polytechnic Univer-
sity. The authors are grateful for this support.
Appendix. Notation
CBC, Ct, CM coefficients dependent on boundary con-
ditions;
E modulus of elasticity;
H height/length of cylinder;
lgx, lgw, lgq gauge lengths for imperfection measurement
in ENV 1993-1-6;
mcr critical number of circumferential buckling
waves;
p internal pressure;
p dimensionless internal pressure;
qcr linear buckling pressure of a cylinder;
R radius of cylinder;
t wall thickness of cylinder;
U0x, U0w, U0q dimple parameters in ENV 1993-1-6;
U0,max dimple tolerance parameter in ENV
1993-1-6;
w weld depression magnitude;
w0 weld depression amplitude;
Dw0x, Dw0w, Dw0q dimple depths (see Fig. 10);
25
y transverse distance from weld.
l0 linear meridional bending half-wavelength;
n Poisson’s ratio;
s membrane stress;
sclclassical buckling stress of cylinder under
axial compression;
sy yield stress;
tcr classical linear buckling stress of cylinder
under torsion
u dimensionless length parameter.
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