Structural integrity of a wind loaded cylindrical steel shell structure

Abstract

The structural integrity and life assessment can be considered as a mandatory request in the civil engineering designing and manufacturing process. The paper is presenting the procedure for determination of crack acceptability based on fracture toughness with failure assessment methods (FAD-1 and FAD-2) which is applied to a cylindrical steel shell structure with welded joints which is having the wind as a main load. The assessment is using BS7910/2013. Thus were assessed common types of flaws met at steel shell cylindrical structure elements using failure assessment diagrams - level 1 - FAD-1. The results are presenting the acceptability level for each type of flaw with comparative graphs, determining also the critical dimension of the flaw. For each flaw was calculated the failure assessment diagram (FAD-2). Different comparisons between group of flaws were done, revealing the critical crack like flaw. Also the critical value of flaw dimensions were calculated for each flaw type. The methodology establishes clear rules for assessment of structural elements with cracks, determining the initial flaws, assessed flaws and critical values of the cracks. Based on the detailed procedures described in the paper, on conclusions to the assessment done on each type of flaw, the assessment methods can be applied very easy in current design practice with different material characteristics