Elastic behaviour of isolated column-supported ringbeams

Containment structures such as bins and tanks commonly consist of an elevated cylindrical vessel with a conical closure at the base. The complete structure is typically supported by a ringbeam placed at the intersection of the cylinder and cone, and this in turn is supported on columns. In this paper, a comparative study is made of three ringbeam geometries under radial and vertical loading. The axial, flexural, torsional and distortional responses of the ringbeams are modelled by treating the ringbeam as an assembly of axisymmetric shells. The behaviour is shown to be complex and the stresses are found to be poorly described by existing ringbeam design methods.