The elastic linear analysis of a storage tank made up of a cylindrical upper and a conical lower parts is presented. The finite element method is used in which the two components are modelled by cylindrical and conical curved shell elements respectively. The two elements are based on assumed strains rather than displacement fields. They satis@ the exact representation of rigid body modes of displacements and have only the essential degrees of freedom. Such tanks exhibit large stresses at the junction between the cylindrical and conical components. These are normally reduced by the use of a stiffened girder near the junction. This circular girder is represented by exact ring elements. Other methods of reducing the level of stress concentration in which either a series of truncated cones or a doubly curved region are used at the junction is investigated. A parametric study is presented in which the effect of varying the thickness of the cylindrical and conical parts as well as the geometry of the region at the junction.

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