Experimental investigations on the resistance of vertical stiffeners of steel silos shells made of corrugated sheets

Cylindrical shells of silos made of corrugated sheets are usually stiffened by columns which transfer practically all vertical loads of this shell. Accurate determination of the resistance of stiffeners in silos made of corrugated sheets is important since many failures of silos are due to the resistances of those stiffeners. Results of experimental investigations of columns in one of the shells made of corrugated sheets show that the code method of calculation of the resistance of these columns given in EN 1993-4-1 is too conservative. Calculated according to the code resistance of columns due to buckling may be even several times smaller than the actual resistance of those stiffeners. In this paper the course of experimental investigations and their results obtained for vertical columns in a cylindrical shell made of corrugated sheets are presented. Authors discuss calculation method for shell's stiffness according to the code procedure of the relevant calculations.