Buckling Analysis of Cyclone Separator Stand - maximize Buckling Factor of Safety

Aim: To perfrom buckling analysis on cyclone separator stand and determine optimum location for the stiffner.

Introduction:

When long vertical support elements of a structure are subjected to a vertical load then the support element fails due to buckling. Structural members are generally designed for a buckling factor of safety of 3. The buckling factor of safety is defined as the ratio of critical load of buckling to the design load. To increase the buckling factor of safety stiffners are used. Stiffners are the intermittent support for long structural members.

In this study, bucking analysis would be performed on stand of a cyclone separator. The goal is to determine location of stiffner to maximize buckling factor of safety.

Cyclone seperator with stand is shown below:

Cyclone seperator stand without stiffner is shown below:

Cyclone seperator stand with stiffner is shown below:

For running base study the stiffner is positioned at 1000mm from top face and made 75mm thick.

Analysis Setup:

A new study is created is created and bucking is selected in study type. The fixed constrain is applied to the base of the stand and a force of 150KN is applied to the top face of the stand as shown in figure below. The material is choosen as alloy steel for the study and study is performed.
To determine optimum position of stiffner, a new design study is created. The offset of stiffner from the top face is taken as input/variable parameter and its value if varied from 500mm to 1500mm with 100mm step. A constrain is setuped for buckling factor of safety being greater than 25. Goal is setuped for maximizing the buckling factor of safety.
The result of design study is shown below,

From the study results, the optimum position for the stiffner is 900mm from the top face and buckling factor of safety at this location is 27.478613.

The analysis results with stiffner located at this position is shown below,