Plastic buckling of rings at steel silo transition junctions

Elevated steel bins and tanks typically consist of a cylindrical vessel, a conical hopper and a skirt. The intersection of these three shell segments is termed the transition junction and is subject to a large circumferential compression. A ring is often required at this junction. The high circumferential compression at the intersection may lead to a buckling failure of the ring. Elastic buckling of the ring at the transition junction has been studied recently, but very little is currently known about the plastic buckling of such a ring. This paper presents a theoretical investigation into the plastic buckling of the transition ring using a finite element analysis. Simple annular plate rings are studied first, and the results are compared with the few known predictions from an earlier study. The plastic buckling of T-section rings is then explored.