Design of wind girders for open-top liquid storage tanks made of steel

This paper presents FEM modeling of the structures of the Arch-Cathedral Belfry, Vilnius, Lithuania. The Belfry is the prominent historical building belonging to the cultural heritage of Vilnius. The wall structures of the building have complicated geometry containing stiffeners and openings and are manufactured of different materials. Various three-dimensional solid and shell FE models are developed to predict the dynamic behaviour of the structures. Simplified models, neglecting openings and the influence of significantly stiff er lower part of structure are also examined. The performance of different models is evaluated based on the results of eigenfrequency analysis. It has been found, that shell discretization generally yields slightly lower eigenfrequency values compared to the more exact 3D solid model.