COMPUTER AIDED ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF CIRCULAR CONTAINERS

Abstract

Engineering design is a creative activity, where the the creative skills of the designer are used with the help of engineering knowledge to produce the design of engineering system. The emergence of CAD as a field of specialization has helped to engineers to acquire the knowledge and skills needed in the use of these tools in an efficient and effective way in the design process. The problem of computer aided analysis and design of circular containers has been dealt with in this dissertation. Water containers are important public utility structures since they form the essential part of water distribution system. There are various sizes and shapes of water containers such as overhead tanks, Intze tank, tanks resting on ground and underground reservoirs. A software `AutoTANK' is developed for complete analysis and designing of various elements used in tanks, viz. spherical dome, ring beam, cylindrical wall and base slab. `AutoTANK' has been designed to have compatibility with AutoCAD Release 12 and later versions. Modules in this software export the drawings prepared in DXF format showing various structural details such as meridional reinforcement, hoop rings and other parameters . Deflected shape and variation of hoop forces and meridional moment are also created and viewed in AutoCAD. Using this software, few problems of reservoirs with a variety of end conditions and wall thicknesses have been solved. `AutoTANK' offers a great deal of flexibility in structural design and complies with relevant codal provisions.