Identification and simulation of initial geometrical imperfections of steel cylindrical tanks

Critical loads of shell structures can be properly approximated only through including randomness in their geometry. As it is difficult and expensive to measure the initial structure imperfections in situ or in laboratory, a methodology of identification and description of the available data should be provided. The presented procedure provides an opportunity for the reproduction of measured maps of steel cylindrical tank geometrical imperfections. Simulations of nonhomogeneous random fields of imperfections, based on the original conditional-rejection method of simulation, are applied. Using the measured data, an envelope of the imperfections is also estimated. It allows for simulation of extreme but still realistic fields of imperfections. Additionally, nonlinear numerical analyses of tanks with and without initial geometrical imperfections are performed. The results indicate that the initial imperfections influence the solutions.