ABSTRACT
The paper deals with correlation between natural frequencies and buckling load of a stiffened shell composed of corrugated sheets and vertical stiffeners (columns). The simplified shell segment represents the buckling behaviour of a whole silo with sparsely distributed columns. The paper covers variants of linear buckling analyses, dynamic eigenvalue analyses and geometrically non-linear analyses of a segment modelled with shell elements. Compressive stresses resulting from the applied loads made the natural frequencies vary, tending to zero while axial forces reach the buckling loads. The relationship between squares of natural frequencies and buckling loads is linear at small load magnitudes, non-linear for higher load magnitudes. The Vibration Correlation Technique (VCT) can be used in the case of existing structures in order to determine buckling load or the degree of bearing capacity of the structure.
