Unsymmetrically loaded cylindrical tank on elastic foundation

The analysis of axisymmetric shells of arbitrary shapes subjected to arbitr ary loading has attracted considerable attention. If one considers the Four ier series of the circumference direction of loads and displacements, an ax isymmetric tank subjected to a nonaxisymmetric load can be treated as a 1D problem. This paper combines the foundation and element stiffness matrices to make a circular plate element resting on an elastic foundation. This fin ite-element stiffness matrix is then converted into a transfer matrix to re duce the unknown quantity of the degrees of freedom of the element, no matt er how many elements the shell structure has. Nonaxisymmetrically loaded cy lindrical tanks resting on an elastic foundation are analyzed by the transf er matrix method. The calculated results of the proposed method to the nona xisymmetrically loaded cylindrical tanks on an elastic foundation surprisin gly reduced the degrees of freedom compared with the existing method.