The pursuit for cheaper energy is leading the current wind tower design to increased heights. Common wind turbine tower designs would generate unjustified costs for transportation and erection leading to inefficient use of materials. In order to reduce these costs, several simplified erection methods have been proposed. One of such is the hybrid lattice-tubular steel tower. For economic feasibility, built-up cold-formed polygonal cross-sections have been proposed for the lattice part. This article presents a numerical investigation of the failure modes of closed polygonal cross-sections. The first part contains a presentation of structural systems which incorporate elements composed of plates and cold-formed members. The evaluation of the polygonal sections is done by means of finite element analysis considering local and global geometrical imperfections and residual stresses generated in the fabrication procedure. A comparative study is performed between several finite element models to propose a corresponding European buckling curve for calculating the flexural buckling resistance. The results show that the design of polygonal sections can be done according to European buckling curves methodology.
Stability in a structural mechanics context has posed a continuous problem throughout history for mathematicians, engineers and architects. Flexural buckling is one of the main problems steel structures are faced with in order to ensure an economic design. Different equations have been derived to estimate critical loads that could lead to collapse of compressed members. The buckling resistance of compressed struts are calculated in Europe using the European buckling curves. The method of calculating the resistance implies the use of a reduction factor based on 5 different buckling curves. These buckling curves differ based on type of cross-section, fabrication method and steel grade. The method has been generally accepted since it proved to be reliable and versatile. The current design codes are assigning the same relevant buckling curve to the sections made of steels with yield stress of above 460 MPa. This conservative approach is one of the reasons that discourages the use of highstrength steels in common structural applications, since the designer does not see a direct benefit from the additional steel strength. The first part of the paper briefly describes the origin of the European buckling curves. The second part presents two analytical models for calculating flexural buckling limit loads. Flexural buckling experiments performed on welded box and I-sections made of highstrength steel, with the yield stress in the range of 690-960MPa. The third part analyses the existing buckling experiments and statistically evaluates the models proposed for estimating the resistance of high-strength steel struts subjected to pure compression. The final part addresses the potential future research in the context of developing adequate flexural buckling curves for high strength steel (HSS) members.
Steel cylindrical shell structures are used in a large variety of civil engineering applications such as off-shore platforms, tanks, silos, wind turbine towers, etc. The local stability of such structures and their sensitivity to imperfections is a well-known problem. In current engineering practice the design method is based on the selection of an imperfection class for the shell and subsequently calculating a reduction factor,χ, to the resistance of the shell. One such methodology is supplied by the EN1993-1-6; special conditions are given to pressurized tubes subjected to meridional compression. Past studies have focused on the stability of cylindrical shells with internal pressure. The stability problem of a long cylinder considering the internal pressure as a simple static load was addressed. Thus, the approaches considered the fluid as compressible. The purpose of the present work is to investigate numerically the potential benefit of using an incompressible fluid fully enclosed in a circular cylindrical shell. The constraint imposed by the presence of the liquid in the interior of a shell will be referred to as "hydraulic constraint". As liquids are nearly incompressible, the buckling of a liquid-filled shell has to satisfy the condition that the integral of all the displacements normal to the shell surface is equal to the volume variation of the contained liquid. The volume variation of the shell interior has to be equal to the dilation of the shell due to liquid pressure increments associated to the onset of geometrical instability. Additionally, the weight of the contained liquid causes additional circumferential tension in the cases of vertically placed cylinders. The methodology followed is the numerical analysis of cylindrical shells by means of the ABAQUS Finite Element code and a comparison with the methods given in the Eurocode.
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