ABSTRACT
Circular cylindrical shells made of steel are used in a variety of engineering structures, for example, tanks, chimneys, offshore platforms, pipelines, silos or wind turbine towers. The design against tensile hoop stresses (containments) or against tubular bending stresses (tower-type structures) often results in very thin shell walls which implies the danger of failure by instability due to compressive and/or shear forces (shell buckling).
