Research Information System
Steel Construction, vol.13, no.2, pp.128-138, 2020 (ESCI)
Cylindrical steel storage tanks are thin-walled significant engineering structures. This study investigated the buckling conditions of ground-supported cylindrical steel liquid storage tanks
according to roof shapes and shell thicknesses. The roof
shapes selected were open-top, flat-closed, conical-closed
and torispherical-closed-top tanks, and shell thicknesses were
4, 6 and 8 mm. These tanks may be exposed to several types of
failure during earthquakes, such as elephant-foot buckling, diamond-shape buckling, overturning and uplift. Great financial
loss and environmental damage can also ensue when steel liquid storage tanks are damaged in an earthquake. The seismic
analyses were conducted under Kobe earthquake conditions
for cylindrical steel tanks with different shell thicknesses and
roof types. To investigate dynamic behaviour of the tanks accurately, the hydrodynamic response of each tank was divided
into impulsive and convective components. Directional deformation and buckling results are presented for both impulsive
and convective masses. As a result, the deformation of the tank
is significantly reduced when the top of the tank is in the shape
of a torispherical dome. The flat-closed tank has a maximum directional deformation in both impulsive and convective modes.
Results also show that when shell thickness was increased,
buckling deformation decreased, but different deformation
states were observed on the wall and roof components depending on the type of roof.