Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 159181

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Stability of steel shell structures

General Report
Herbert Schmidt

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Essen, D-45117 Essen, Germany

Abstract
The state-of-the-art of available knowledge about the stability design of steel shell structures
is discussed. Specific stress is put on the various approaches to a numerically based stability
design. The European Prestandard ENV 1993-1-6 (the Shell Eurocode) is briefly described.
2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Shells; Stability; Buckling; Design; Numerical modelling

1. Introduction
When the author was invited to be General Reporter for Session 8 of SDSS 99
he was informed that he had to write a state-of-the-art report on the Stability and
Dynamic of Shells. However, because he is not really an expert on dynamics of
shells, he decided to concentrate on the stability of shells. Accidentally this coincides
with the fact that no papers on the dynamics of shells have been submitted for the
Colloquium. Furthermore, the author has added into the title of this General Report
the words steel and structures. The first addition signals, for example, that all
the interesting shells constructed of other metals and of new materials such as fibrereinforced laminated plastics, are excluded; and the second addition signals that the
report confines itself to those steel constructions for which civil engineers are primarily responsible, e.g. tanks, silos, processing containments, chimneys and towers.
The simple reason is that only for these shells does the author feel competent enough
to write a state-of-the-art report.
Although the history of shell stability research is rather shortSection 2 of this
report presents a very short retrospective viewthe subject has, in the last three
* Tel.: +49-201-183-2766; fax: +49-201-183-2710.
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decades, drawn the attention of a great number of qualified applied mechanics

researchers all over the world. Schulz [1] counted 20 years ago as many as ca. 2300
publications with test results; the number of theoretical publications at that time was
certainly larger by a considerable factor. Since the 1970s a number of international
conferences have been held dealing with steel shells, either specifically or in substantial sessions within a wider conference subject. For many of them, full proceedings
have been issued [28]. A rather comprehensive review paper about buckling of
shells has recently been published by Teng [9]; it contains more than 300 references.
Furthermore, some technical journals have recently brought out special issues on
metal shell structures [10,11].
Considering this huge amount of scientific material published in the last few years
about steel shell stability, the author has decided not to try to review the whole of
it within the limited space of this report. Instead, he will describe, from his personal
subjective point of view as a researching, teaching, designing and controlling structural engineer and a member of some national and international standardization committees, the state-of-the-art of available knowledge about the stability design of steel
shell structures. Unavoidably, the treatise will mainly be based on a Western Europeans point-of-view.

2. Short historical retrospective view on shell stability research

The stability of shells drew academics attention considerably later than the stability of plates. That was possibly to do with the fact that the technological skill to
produce thin-walled curved surfaces for structural purposes developed later than the
skill to produce thin-walled planar surfaces. Therefore, there may have been no
research need. On the other hand, the lateness will also have been a consequence
of the many times more difficult theory. After all, first empirical tests on axially
compressed steel cylinders had been carried outin connection with the planned
Britannia and Conway bridgesas early as 1849 by Fairbairn [12]; and the Firthof-Forth Bridge had been built using riveted tubular members of large dimensions
in 1890, about 20 years before Lorenz [13] and Timoshenko [14] found the theoretical solution for the critical axial load of a circular cylindrical shell. Further fundamental shell buckling cases were then theoretically solved in quick succession: a
circular cylindrical shell under external pressure by v. Mises [15] and under torsional
shear by Schwerin [16]; and a spherical shell under external pressure by Zoelly [17].
After these initiative treatises about 80 years ago, a period of intensive work on
linear shell buckling theory followed in the 1930s. It is mainly connected with the
names Flugge, Timoshenko and Donnell. The first two academics published their
famous monographies almost simultaneously [18,19], the latter created the shallow
shell theory [20,21]. It turned out that linear shell buckling theory may be pursued
on different theoretical precision levelscontrary to column, beam and plate buckling theories. Furthermore, it also turned out in this period that, no matter how precise
the applied linear theory was, its results were much less suitable as a direct basis
for practical design purposes than those of linear column/beam/plate buckling

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161

theories. Even safety factors as large as four, applied to the critical axial load of a
cylinder, proved to yield unsafe structures.
The large discrepancies between theoretical solutions and the load carrying
capacity of real shell structures had become obvious since the first systematic shell
buckling test results had been compared to theoretical results [22]. It was not until the
1950s, however, that it was fully understood that the interaction between unavoidable
imperfections and the ill-natured postbuckling behaviour of most of the instabilityendangered shell structures was the reason for the large discrepancies. The most
important contributions to the development of this understanding were those of Karman and Tsien [23] and Donnell and Wan [24] who firstly calculated complete load
deformation curves of axially compressed cylinders with perfect and imperfect
geometry, respectively, using nonlinear formulations of Donnells shell theory, and
that of Koiter [25] who created the initial postbuckling theory.
Immense efforts followed in order to calculate the postbuckling minima of perfect
shells by means of nonlinear shell theory as precisely as possible. The aim was to
use the postbuckling minima as conservative buckling load estimates for practical
design purposes. The end of this research period is marked by the works of Hoff et
al. [26] and Thielemann and Esslinger [27]. It ended with a clear understanding of
the physical features that distinguish highly imperfection-sensitive shells with low
postbuckling minimum from those of relative imperfection insensitivity: the different
shares of membrane and bending energy in the resistance against initial buckling of
a perfect shell structure. Simplified membrane-reduced shell buckling theories for
estimating buckling loads for design purposes have been derived from this finding
[28,29].
The last three decades of shell stability research have been dominated by the
rapidly increasing power of computers in combination with the Finite Element
Method (FEM). Researchers have concentrated more and more on trying to simulate
numerically the real, i.e. fully nonlinear, load carrying behaviour of realistically,
i.e. imperfectly modelled shell structures, and to verify the results by means of carefully performed buckling tests. The conference proceedings mentioned earlier give
evidence of this development.

3. Theory of shell stability

The theory of shells has come to a state where the basic mechanics are concludingly laid down in good monographies, e.g. [30,31], and where the conversion into
finite element formulations has reached such sophisticated levels that, from the steel
shell designers standpoint, the present and further research has a certain tendency
of only being of academical interest (exception: dynamic stability). With regard to
a numerically based shell buckling design, using commercial FE computer programs,
see Section 4. However, there is one area left concerning quasi-static shell stability
where, in the authors opinion, very promising theoretical research is still going
on: that is the task of simulating quantitatively the imperfection influence on shell
buckling phenomena.

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In the past, two separate policies of tackling this task have been pursued. The first
policy is based on the fundamental theoretical hypothesis that it is possible to value
the structural answer of an imperfect structure from certain properties of the perfectly
idealized structure. Koiters [25] initial postbuckling theory belongs to this policy,
as well as all the attempts to use postbuckling minima as estimates for realistic
buckling resistances (starting with Karman and Tsiens [23] pioneering work), as
well as all variants of lower bound or membrane-reduced shell buckling theories
[28,29]. A recent research trend in this context is the minimum perturbation energy
concept which will be briefly described further below.
The second policy is based on the perception that the behaviour of an imperfect
shell can only be simulated by analysing the imperfect shell itself. However, this
logical perception leads inevitably to the question of how the imperfections of a real
shell structure look. Without going into any detail, it may be stated that, no matter
how sophisticated a numerical imitation of an imperfection field may be, it still
represents merely a substitute imperfection because certain components of the real
imperfections (e.g. residual stresses, inhomogenities, anisotropies, loading and
boundary inaccuracies) are eventually not included and must therefore be substituted in the calculational imperfection model. Usually these substitute imperfections
are introduced in the form of equivalent geometric imperfections. Some comments
on this approach, using commercial FE computer programs, will be given in Section
4.4. Here, a recently published new theoretical concept to include the definitely
worst equivalent geometric imperfection shape in the nonlinear buckling analysis
of a shell in order to come up with a direct estimation of the real buckling resistance
will be described further below.
3.1. Concept of minimum perturbation energy
This concept was developed in the Braunschweig School of Structural Analysis
[3234] and is meanwhile capable of producing quantitative results which may be
applied to design problems [35,36]. The concept refers to shell stability cases with
at least one unstable decreasing postbuckling path in their loaddeformation characteristics (Fig. 1). When a fundamental prebuckling equilibrium state of the perfect
shell under a certain load level at which also a postbuckling equilibrium state exists
is perturbed, it will snap through into the buckled shape if the introduced perturbation
energy St is large enough. Of all possible perturbation fields, that one needing the
smallest amount of energy min St to cause a snap-through is determined by means
of solving a nonlinear eigenvalue problem. The latter passes over into the ordinary
linear eigenvalue problem at the bifurcation load level where min St=0. The relation
between the loaddeformation curve and min St is illustrated in Fig. 1.
The advantage (and potential for future development) of the perturbation energy
concept is that the stability-reducing effect of imperfections is represented by a single
quantity which can be determined at the perfect structure. Of course, the value min
St which stands for a realistically imperfect structure has to be calibrated against
known lower bound test results. Beyond that, it has to be normalized in a suitable
manner before a direct extrapolation to unknown shell buckling cases is feasible.

H. Schmidt / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 159181

Fig. 1.

163

Loaddeformation and loadperturbation energy curves (after [37]).

Schafer [37] established interaction surfaces for the elastic buckling of cylinders
under combined axial, radial and torsional loads (Fig. 2). Spohr [36] improved the
concept with regard to the definition of the reference energy for the normalization
of the perturbation energy and extended the concept to elastoplastic buckling.
3.2. Concept of definitely worst geometric imperfection shape
This concept [3840] includes the specific search for the worst geometric imperfection shapewithin a given imperfection amplitude limitimplicitly in the nonlinear finite element analysis. The shell element is amended by three imperfection
degrees of freedom at each of its nodes. Thus, the resulting set of nonlinear equations

Fig. 2. Interaction surfaces for a cylinder with r/t=100 under combined axial, radial and torsional loading
(after [35]): calculated with perturbation energy concept, calibrated against DIN axial load buckling;
DIN [72].

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that has to be handled at each load step refers to a variable reference geometry. The
developed algorithms lead automatically to the definitely worst imperfection shape
which causes the lowest possible limit load.
One of the advantages of this new concept seems to be that only stable equilibrium
states have to be considered. No unstable or hypothetic states need to be relied on.
Uncertainties from an eventual adulteration of physical instabilities by numerical
instabilities in the vicinity of eigenvalue clusters are avoided. A further advantage
is that, by introducing amplitude limits, the numerical imperfection model is directly
coupled to the fabrication quality of the shell structure. The author of the present
report thinks further development of this concept would be good. In particular, an
even closer linking of fabrication reality and numerical imperfection model, e.g. by
excluding from the worst shape search procedure certain imperfection patterns as
unrealistic because of the method of fabrication/manufacture or erection, seems to
be thinkable.

4. Numerical simulation of shell buckling

Within the last decade, since Galambos [41] reviewed the finite element analysis
of stability problems, the development of powerful computers and highly efficient
numerical techniques has come to a state where any given shell structure can be
calculatedno matter how complicated the geometry, how dominant the imperfection influence and how nonlinear the load carrying behaviour is. The necessary
numerical tools are no longer only in the hands of researching academics, but are also
availablein the form of commercial FEM packages [42,43]for ordinary structural
design engineers. However, the main task of the design engineer is, more than ever,
to model his shell problem properly and to convert the numerical output into the
characteristic buckling strength of the real shell which is needed for an equally
safe and economic design [44]. Some efforts have been made to include relevant
guidance in the draft of the new European Prestandard ENV 1993-1-6 for steel shell
structures (the Shell Eurocode); it will be discussed in Section 5 of this report.
The following comments are concerned with different thinkable numerical
approaches to shell buckling when using a commercial FEM package.
4.1. Linear bifurcation analysis
The lowest eigenvalue load of the perfect shell is needed as critical buckling resistance Rcr for the simplest numerically based design approach. It is generally no problem to produce this eigenvalue for a given FE model. However, according to the
authors experience as a proof engineer, rather elementary mistakes are made again
and again when defining the FE model of a given shell buckling case. Some simple
illustrative examples follow hereafter.

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165

4.1.1. Cylindrical tower section under centric axial compressionnumber of

elements
Fig. 3 shows the eigenvalue results for a cylinder section under centric axial compression, calculated with four different discretization levels (nel=ca. 500, 1000, 2000,
4000 elements). Although the eigenmode for nel=476 looks quite reasonable, with
the buckling deformations displaying a rather continuous shape (Fig. 3a), this model
overestimates the correct analytical solution [45] by as much as 20%. It should be
mentioned that the usual standard formula
t
sx,cr0.605E
r

(1)

based on Donnells shallow shell theory [21], is for this relatively long cylinder on
the unsafe side, too, by 12.5%. An eight times larger number of elements (Fig. 3b)
is needed to obtain a suitable approximation (Fig. 3c).
4.1.2. Cylindrical tower section under pure bendingnumber of elements
The same cylinder section as used for the preceding example has been calculated
under pure bending (Fig. 4). Again the FE model with nel=476 overestimates the
correct analytical solution [46] by about 20%, and again eight times more elements
are needed for a sufficiently good approximation (Fig. 4c). It might be noteworthy

Fig. 3. Linear bifurcation FE analysis for a cylinder under centric axial compression: eigenmode with
(a) too small number of elements; (b) sufficient number of elements; (c) critical buckling stresses.

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Fig. 4. Linear bifurcation FE analysis for a cylinder under pure bending: eigenmode with (a) too small
number of elements; (b) sufficient number of elements; (c) critical buckling stresses.

that for pure bending Eq. (1) represents asymptotically the correct analytical solution,
although originally derived for centric axial compression. The reason is the shortwaved eigenmode (Fig. 4b).
4.1.3. Cylindrical tower section under centric axial compressionmembrane
boundary conditions
For shell problems the membrane boundary conditions are often more important
than the bending boundary conditions. That is not self-evident for many an engineer
who usually designs ordinary steel structures. Fig. 5 shows the eigenvalue results
for the cylinder of Fig. 3 when being calculatedinstead of using the classical
boundary condition S3 with its axially free but circumferentially restrained in-plane
edge displacementsthe other three possible combinations of membrane boundary
conditions (called S1, S2 and S4). For this example, in the case of restraining the
edges not only circumferentially but also axially (S1), the eigenmode changes completely (compare Fig. 3b and Fig. 5a) and the critical buckling stress increases (Fig.
5c). On the other hand, allowing the edges to deform circumferentially again changes
the eigenmode completely (Fig. 5b) and reduces the critical buckling stress drastically by ca. 50%independent of the axial displacement being restrained (S2) or
free (S4). Every design engineer when modelling his shell case into a FE model in

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167

Fig. 5. Linear bifurcation FE analysis for a cylinder under centric axial compression: (a) eigenmode
with S1 boundary conditions; (b) eigenmode with S2 boundary conditions; (c) critical buckling stresses
for all four S boundary conditions.

order to determine its linear eigenvalue should be aware of the great influence of
the membrane boundary conditions.
4.1.4. Open cylindrical tank under wind loadingsymmetry conditions
It is common practice to utilize symmetry when creating a FE model of a symmetric structure under a symmetric load arrangement (see the example in Fig. 6).
However, one should keep in mind that such systems have symmetric and antimetric
eigenmodes. Therefore, as a matter of principle two effective half systems have to
be generated, one with symmetric (Fig. 6c) and one with antimetric boundary conditions in the plane of symmetry. Only in this way is it guaranteed that the real
critical eigenmode leading to the lowest eigenvalue is found (Fig. 6b).
4.2. Geometrically nonlinear bifurcation analysis
Usually the linear bifurcation analysis discussed above is sufficient to produce a
reliable critical buckling resistance Rcr as the numerical basis for a traditional
reduction factor shell buckling design. However, in some cases a geometrically nonlinear elastic analysis (i.e. large deflection theory) should be used to calculate the
prebuckling path of the perfect shell configuration to which the eigenvalue search
is applied. Unfortunately, only a few of the standard FE programs that ordinary

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Fig. 6. Linear bifurcation FE analysis for an open cylindrical tank under wind loading: (a) wind pressure
distribution; (b) correct eigenmode (antimetric); (c) eigenmode of half system with symmetry conditions.

design engineers have access to provide the latter option. And, on top of that, such
a nonlinear bifurcation FE analysis requires considerable experience of the user.
Typical examples of shell cases where a linear bifurcation analysis would overestimate the critical elastic buckling resistance of the perfect shell by amounts which
are not neglectable are:
conical and spherical caps that are shallow;
conical and spherical caps that rest on supports that can displace radially;
assemblies of cylindrical and conical shell segments without ring stiffeners at the
meridional junctions and which are loaded meridionally by centric axial compression and/or global bending.
Fig. 7 illustrates the latter case by means of two actual examples [47,48]. For the
double cone shell (Fig. 7a) the nonlinear bifurcation load (GNA) is only 40% (!)

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169

Fig. 7. Critical buckling modes of (a) a cone/cone and (b) a cylinder/cone/cylinder shell assembly under
axial load, according to linear (LA) and geometrically nonlinear (GNA) bifurcation analysis (after [47]).

of the linear one (LA)although the buckling modes look rather similar. For the
cylinder/cone/cylinder shell (Fig. 7b) the relevant ratio is 65%, in this case with a
significant difference in the buckling modes where the critical region even switches
from the concave cylinder/cone junction (LA) to the convex cone/cylinder junction (GNA).
4.3. Fully nonlinear analysis of the perfect shell
An exact FE analysis of the nominal shell configuration, i.e. including all nonlinear geometry and material influences, but with perfect geometry, has become quite
popular among researchers. The reasons are in the authors opinion: it is a challenge
to master all the sophisticated nonlinear techniques; the computational power to achieve this is available these days; and the unpleasant problems of realistic imperfections
are avoided. However, real shell structures are imperfectunfortunately.
Fig. 8 illustrates the situation for a cylindrical test specimen made of austenitic
steel AISI 304 (material-no. 1.4301) under axial load at 100C temperature [49,50].
Although the r/t-ratio of 150 classifies this shell as medium-thick where the nonlinear material influences are supposed to be dominant, none of the numerical models
were able to simulate the experimental behaviour properly. As can be seen, the
imperfection influences soften the prebuckling behaviour and lower the buckling
load, compared to the numerical predictions. Furthermore, none of the numerical
models found the actual periodic buckling mode of the specimen; all of them predicted an axisymmetric elephants foot collapse mechanism.
From the foregoing explanations it may be concluded that, for a specific design
case, a fully nonlinear analysis of the perfect shell is physically reasonable only
for a relatively thick-walled shell for which a pronouncedly yield-induced collapse

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Fig. 8. Load-shortening curves of a perfect cylinder under axial load, according to various fully nonlinear
FE analysis (GMNA) variants and compared to the experimental curve (after [49]).

mechanism is expected. Eventually the lacking imperfection influence has to be

added by engineers estimation. Besides that, this elasticplastic buckling analysis
has, in recent years, been successfully used for systematic parametric studies aiming
at fundamental insights into the buckling behaviour of a specific shell case in the
elasticplastic interaction slenderness region. Examples are the studies of Wunderlich
et al. [51] on externally pressurized toriconical shells and of Esslinger and v. Impe
[52] on axially compressed conical shells.
4.4. Fully nonlinear analysis of the imperfect shell
If, for a stability-endangered shell structure, the realistic (in the Eurocode terminology: the characteristic) buckling resistance should be determined from a numerical
FE simulation, without adding any additional reduction, the imperfections must
imperatively be included. The fact that any imperfection modelling, however sophisticated, represents merely a substitute imperfection has already been stressed in
Section 3. The obvious straightforward way of building substitute imperfections into
a FE model when using a commercial program are equivalent geometric imperfections. Three different approaches to this basic idea are thinkable and have been pursued in the research efforts of recent years. They are shortly discussed hereafter.
4.4.1. Realistic geometric imperfections
It is understandable that a design engineer may ardently wish to include the real
geometric imperfections of his structure, eventually amplified by a proper factor to
take care of the material imperfections. But there is definitely no way of complying
with this wish in a deterministic mannerexcept perhaps with regard to systematically fabrication-induced imperfections in series products. The only way of simulating realistic imperfections seems to be to model them stochastically [53,54],

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171

eventually based on measurements at a great number of similar shell applications

[55]. However, the author is not aware of any effected application of this approach
to a civil engineering shell structure.
4.4.2. Worst geometric imperfections
The idea to find the worst possible geometric imperfection pattern for a given,
to-be-designed shell structure and to introduce it into the nonlinear analysis is as old
as the discovery of the detrimental influence of imperfections. It was common practice from the beginning, supposedly taken over from column and plate buckling
experience, to consider that imperfection pattern to be the worst which is affine to
the lowest eigenmode. For shell cases with clustered eigenvalues the question arose
as to which one of the multiple eigenmodes was to be taken. Looking at the axially
compressed cylinder as the prototype for such a shell case, the historical development
went from checkerboard linear eigenmodes [24] via the axisymmetric linear eigenmode [5658] to the fundamental conclusion of Ho [59]: that one of all linear combinations of the clustered eigenmodes which produces the steepest decreasing postbuckling path represents the worst imperfection pattern. Today we know that for a
number of shell cases of which the prebuckling behaviour is significantly nonlinear,
the search for the worst imperfection pattern should include nonlinear eigenmodes as
well [6062]. And to make it even more complicated, the results from new theoretical
methods which search directly for the lowest possible limit load (see Section 3)
suggest that single dimple imperfections may be worse than eigenmode-affine patterns covering larger areas of the relevant shell.
The subject cannot be discussed in detail here. Numerous researchers have dealt
with it. For a design engineer, the actual task is even more difficult when he tries
to assume an imperfection pattern which, though being nearly worst, is not too
far away from having at least a small probability of occurring in practice. The only
advice that the author could give him is that he should keep in mind that it is only
a substitute imperfection which he assumes, that the choice of the amplitude value
is at least as important as the worst pattern, and that he must calibrate or verify
his result anyway (see Section 5.2).
4.4.3. Stimulating geometric imperfections
From the foregoing explanations it becomes clear that for extensive parametric
studies where a great number of fully nonlinear shell analyses have to be performed,
it may be a good idea to choose an as simple equivalent geometric imperfection
pattern as possible, deliberately abstaining from making it realistic or worst. Its
function is to stimulate the characteristic physical shell buckling behaviour. For
that purpose it must only have a certain geometric similarity to one of the critical
eigenmodes. Its amplitude value has in any case to be calibrated somehow; it has
no concrete meaning.
The numerical investigations of Hautala [49] about axially compressed cylinders
made of austenitic steels and loaded at various elevated temperatures are a typical
example of using the technique of stimulating geometric imperfections. A single
axisymmetric inward predeformation with a sinusoidal meridional shape located in

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the middle of the cylinder length was chosen. It provided the possibility of using a
special shell-of-revolution computer program [63] which consumed only 10% computer time compared to a conventional FE package; that was important in view of
the 6000 fully nonlinear shell analyses needed. Fig. 9 shows buckling curves which
were simulated using different depth/radius ratios w0/r of the stimulating predeformation. The one for w0=r/500 correlates very well with the design buckling curve in
ECCS [64]. It was therefore taken as the basis for the directly comparative nonlinear
calculations using alternatively the bilinear elasticplastic and the strain hardening
stressstrain curves of structural steels and stainless steels, respectively.
Similar single axisymmetric predeformations, instead of the full axisymmetric eigenmode, have already been used by several researchers when investigating axially
compressed cylinders [6568]. However, usually this predeformation was considered
as a realistic geometric imperfection at circumferential welded junctions, rather
than a stimulating geometric imperfection in the beforementioned sense.

5. Standards and recommendations for the stability design of steel shells

Traditionally, nearly all national standards with structural steel design rules of a
more generic type, i.e. without referring to special applications, are focussed on
beam/column/bar type structures. Shell-like elements would be included, if at all,
only as tubular members. If shells are used in certain application fields (e.g. silos,
offshore platforms), the necessary design information would be given in the relevant
application standard. Though historically explicable, this situation is unsatisfactory.
Therefore, when the drafting of Parts 3 and 4 of Eurocode 3 (chimneys, towers,
masts, silos, tanks, pipelines) started a few years ago, the project team members
thought it might be reasonable to develop a set of basic design rules for steel shell
structures, independent of specific applications. Meanwhile the whole Eurocode 3
system has been restructured in a way that all general design rules are collected in
the form of sub-parts of Part 1. Thus, a Part 1.6 General RulesSupplementary

Fig. 9. Numerically simulated buckling curves of axially compressed cylinders, using an axisymmetric
single inward stimulating imperfection of depth w0 (after [49]).

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173

Rules for the Strength and Stability of Shell Structures has been worked out and
will be officially issued as European Prestandard ENV 1993-1-6 by the end of 1999.
It has been partially presented and discussed in some recent conference papers [69
71]. Its scope and some selected features of its shell stability approach will be commented on hereafter.
5.1. Scope of ENV 1993-1-6
Unlike the well-known European Recommendations for buckling of steel shells
[64] and the German Standard for the stability of steel shells [72], the Prestandard
ENV 1993-1-6 covers not only the stability strength of shells (although often dominating the design of steel shell structures), but also their strength in terms of plastic
collapse/tensile rupture (called excessive yielding), cyclic plasticity and fatigue.
All these design aspects are formulated as ultimate limit states (ULS) for which
characteristic design resistance quantities have to be determined. Three optional
design approaches are offered for each limit state:
design by means of standard expressions if available (called direct design);
the classical approach where design stresses under acting loads are calculated and
compared to design stress resistance values (called stress design);
the modern, strongly computer-oriented approach where the limit state is assessed
by means of a sophisticated numerical analysis (e.g. based on the Finite Element
Method) concerning the whole structure (called design by global numerical
analysis).
The latter approach (or more precisely, the rules for the latter approach) will certainly
be the object of one or the other criticism. Some engineers in high-tech shell
application areas, e.g. space structures or nuclear power containments, could argue
that sophisticated computer analyses need not be codified. However, especially for
shell buckling, it is necessary to specify certain requirements for the numerical modelling, as may be realized from the explanations in the preceding section.
As to the different theoretical levels and different levels of modelling when
numerically analysing a shell (see Section 4), the relevant terminology needed clear
definitions because between practising engineers of different countries and different
technical communities quite often a considerable confusion had been observed. Table
1 summarizes the seven types of shell analysis as defined in ENV 1993-1-6, together
with their abbreviations.
In order to provide the user of the Prestandard with available algebraic informations about the strength and stability of shells, four annexes have been added to
the main document of ENV 1993-1-6:

Annex
Annex
Annex
Annex

A:
B:
C:
D:

membrane theory stresses in shells;

additional expressions for plastic collapse resistances;
expressions for linear elastic membrane and bending stresses; and
expressions for buckling design.

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Table 1
Types of shell analysis according to ENV 1993-1-6
Abbreviations

Type of analysis

Shell theory

Membrane theory of shells

LA

Linear elastic shell analysis

Perfect

GNA

Geometrically nonlinear elastic

analysis
Materially nonlinear analysis
Geometrically and materially
nonlinear analysis
Geometrically nonlinear elastic
analysis with imperfections
Geometrically and materially
nonlinear analysis with
imperfections

Membrane
Not applicable
equilibrium
Linear bending Linear
and stretching
Nonlinear
Linear
Linear
Nonlinear

Nonlinear
Nonlinear

Perfect
Perfect

Nonlinear

Linear

Imperfect

Nonlinear

Nonlinear

Imperfect

MNA
GMNA
GNIA
GMNIA

Material law

Shell geometry
Perfect

Perfect

5.2. Shell buckling limit state according to ENV 1993-1-6

5.2.1. Fabrication tolerances, quality classes
As repeatedly emphasized in this report, the buckling strength of thin shells
contrary to the other abovementioned strength casesis strongly dependent on the
geometrical accurateness of the realized structure. Moreover, residual stresses, e.g.
from welding, may in certain cases have a further deteriorating influence. Vicariously
for the whole of possible imperfections, three essential and measurable geometric
imperfection types have been chosen to define buckling-relevant fabrication tolerance limits. They are:
the out-of-roundness of the shell:
U r

(dmaxdmin)
dnom

(2)

the accidental eccentricity ea at joints perpendicular to membrane compressive

forces, related to the wall thickness t:
ea
Ue
t

(3)

H. Schmidt / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 159181

175

the depth w0 of initial dimples in the shell wall, related to certain critical gauge
lengths lg:
U0

w0
lg

(4)

The values of the tolerance limit parameters U, as specified in ENV 1993-1-6 for
three fabrication tolerance quality classes, are listed in Table 2. The introduction of
quality classes reflects the sensitivity of the buckling design strength to fabrication
accurateness and should encourage the fabricator to control it during fabrication. Of
course, all buckling strength parameters have been made dependent on the quality
class in such a manner that a higher quality class is rewarded with a higher design
strength. The idea to class shells into strength groups according to the quality of
construction was first proposed by Odland [73] and introduced into the Eurocode
drafting work by Rotter.
5.2.2. Buckling stress design
The stress design approach follows on principle the long-established reduction
factor approach as used in many national and international standards, e.g. [64,72].
Its gist is the yield-stress related stability reduction factor c as function of the nondimensional shell slenderness l=(fy,k/sRc)0.5 with sRc being the critical buckling stress
of the perfect shell. This format is compatible with the treatment of other stability
cases in Eurocode 3 (Fig. 10). For c an algebraic expression has been chosen
(proposed by the author and modified by Rotter) which, by means of four free buckling parameters, is adaptable to any lower bound information of a shell buckling
case and thus is open for future development:
c1 when ll0

c1b

ll0
lpl0

(5)
when l0llp

(6)

Table 2
Values for tolerance limit and equivalent imperfection parameters, respectively, according to ENV 19931-6
Fabrication tolerance quality
class

Tolerance parameters

Class

Description

Ur,max

Ue,max

U0,max

Equivalent
imperfection
parameter
U0,eff

A
B
C

Excellent
High
Normal

0.007
0.010
0.015

0.14
0.20
0.30

0.006
0.010
0.016

0.010
0.016
0.025

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H. Schmidt / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 159181

Fig. 10. Stability reduction factor c=f(l) in ENV 1993-1-6.

a
when lpl
l2

(7)

where (see Fig. 10): l0 is the squash limit slenderness defining the plastic plateau
of the buckling curve; lp is the plastic limit slenderness above which purely elastic
buckling is assumed: lp=[a/(1b)]0.5; b describes the relative stress level at lp; a
is the well-known elastic imperfection reduction factor (knock-down factor); and
h describes the shape of the elasticplastic buckling interaction between lp and l0.
The buckling parameters a, b, h and l0 are for basic shell buckling cases given
in Annex D of ENV 1993-1-6, e.g. for externally pressurized cylinders of fabrication
tolerance quality class B:
a0.65, b0.6, h1, l00.4

5.2.3. Buckling design by global numerical analysis

Rules for the assessment of the ultimate buckling limit state of an arbitrary shell
of revolution by means of a numerical LA/GNA analysis (see Sections 4.1 and 4.2)
or a GMNA analysis (see Section 4.3)abbreviations according to Table 1are
given in ENV 1993-1-6. In both cases, proper imperfection reduction factors have
to be applied to the numerical result. Of course, the latter is the crux of this approach.
If no specific factors are available (e.g. from specific tests or from analogy deduction
based on comparable buckling cases), ENV 1993-1-6 prescribes conservatively to
take the reduction factor values for an axially compressed cylinder.
Rules for a straightforward shell buckling assessment by a fully nonlinear GMNIA
analysis (see Section 4.4) are also given in ENV 1993-1-6. The imperfection influence may be simulated by equivalent geometric imperfections. Their pattern should
be chosen in such a form that it has the most unfavourable effect on the buckling
behaviour of the shell. The difficulties inherent to this banal sentence have been

H. Schmidt / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 159181

177

discussed in Section 4.4. The maximum deviation of the equivalently imperfect

geometry from the perfect shape, i.e. the imperfection amplitude, should be assumed
not smaller than
w0,effU0,efflg and w0,eff100U0,efft

(8)

with the parameter U0,eff according to Table 2. As can be seen, the assumed geometric
imperfections are about 60% larger than the allowed tolerance limits for measurable
initial dimples. This is because the equivalent geometric imperfections are substitute imperfections (see Section 3) and have to cover eventual non-measurable imperfections (e.g. residual stresses) as well. An additional rule recommends to check if
a 10% smaller amplitude than the one from Eq. (8) possibly delivers a smaller ultimate load. If that is the case (which happens in some shell configurations), the minimum has to be determined.
Prior to using the numerical outcome Rcr,GMNIA of the analysis (see Fig. 11) as a
direct basis for the design, it has eventually to be calibrated. For this purpose, according to ENV 1993-1-6, other shell buckling cases, for which either test results or
reliable characteristic buckling resistance values are available, and which are comparable in their buckling controlling parameters, have to be calculated with the same
numerical tool using similar imperfection assumptions and similar modelling techniques.

6. Concluding remarks
This general report could only address a few selected aspects within the wide
field of steel shell stability. Much progress has been achieved in the last years, in
terms of better physical insight into the complex behaviour of shells and better
numerical tools for its handling when designing a shell structure, as well as of general
design rules for fundamental shell stability cases. However, if the reader of this
report would now have the impression that no further research is needed, this

Fig. 11. Alternative definitions of buckling resistance from global GMNA and GMNIA analysis according to ENV 1993-1-6.

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H. Schmidt / Journal of Constructional Steel Research 55 (2000) 159181

impression would be fatally misleading. The author agrees fully with Rotter [69]
who stated in a key note lecture on shell structures: In many aspects of shell structures, there is a mismatch between the needs for structural design and current codified provisions.
Future theoretical shell stability research should, from the view point of structural
design engineers, concentrate on applying the high theoretical knowledge and the
powerful numerical tools to unsolved (or hitherto unsatisfactorily solved) application
problems, rather than turning the basic shell cases (e.g. the cylinder under uniform
axial compression) round and round and coming up with another alleged 0.x% error
in Eq. (1) or Eq. (6). Such application problems are: any type of local loads and
supports, stiffenings, openings and cutouts, shell combinations, incomplete shells,
non-uniform stress states in shells; the list is far from being complete. An excellent
example for this type of sophisticated and purposeful numerical research, as the
author has it in mind, are the Graz investigations on locally supported cylindrical
steel silos or containments [74,75].
A last point that the author would like to emphasize is the continuing need for
shell buckling tests. Of course, the basic philosophy of experimental programs has
changed in view of todays numerical facilities. No longer is it the statistics-focussed
quantity of tests what matters, but their quality as physical verification benchmarks
for numerical models. By the way, tests have an important educational secondary
effect on young researchers: they learn that the numerical model is not the reality.

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