Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

Cylindrical bolted steel tanks with H/D~1 can be made from very thin steel courses the thickness of which is determined by tension. The important issue is to stiffen the whole shell with intermediate stiffeners to prevent from stability loss in situations when the tank is empty and exposed to a strong wind. The FEM package Abaqus with nonlinear Riks algorithm was used for analysis. A parametric study programmed in python, internal Abaqus language was conducted to establish the influence of number and position of intermediate stiffeners on buckling resistance of the tank. After calculating nearly one thousands tasks, results were gathered with python script and compared with classic design recommendations proposed in Eurocode 3, DIN 18 800 Part 4 and AWWA D103-09. Simplified analytical approaches present in current standards are rather conservative and one may want to look for more sophisticated methods of analysis of tank shells presented in this paper for more economical design of such structures. From the comparison of the results obtained with different numerical strategies such as linear buckling analysis (LBA), geometrically nonlinear analysis of perfect (GNA) and imperfect (GNIA) structure a necessity of taking into account imperfections in GNA arises. Otherwise a capacity of the shell structure may be overestimated even over the value obtained from LBA.

Thin-walled steel tanks, Optimal stiffening ring location, Buckling, Finite element method, Python programming, Geometrical imperfections

In this paper, the choice and parametrisation of finite deformation polyconvex isotropic hyperelastic models to describe the behaviour of a class of defect-free monocrystalline metal materials at the molecular level is examined. The article discusses some physical, mathematical and numerical demands which in our opinion should be fulfilled by elasticity models to be useful. A set of molecular numerical tests for aluminium and tungsten providing data for the fitting of a hypere-lastic model was performed, and an algorithm for parametrisation is discussed. The proposed models with optimised parameters are superior to those used in non-linear mechanics of crystals.

Multiscale modeling, Molecular statics, Polyconvexity, Finite elas- ticity, Finite deformations, Hyperelasticity, Monocrystalline metal, Crystal elasticity

In the paper a general approach to modelling of anisotropic linear viscoelastic material properties is presented. Rychlewski's (1983) spectral decomposition theorem is used and one dimensional relaxation functions of linear viscoelasticity model is adopted to eigenvalues of stiffness tensor and named Kelvin relaxation functions. Proposed model was implemented in the FEM system Abaqus on the example of transversely isotropic and isotropic material. On the basis of experimental data available in literature, models were calibrated and verified. Constitutive relations were used in the complex boundary value problem modelling standard rutting test used in road sector to assess the resistance of asphalt mixtures to rutting.

constitutive modeling, viscoelasticity, finite element method, anisotropic materials, asphalt concretes