Abstract
Large steel storage tanks designed with long‐span structures, employed for storing oil and fuel, have been widely used in many countries over the past twenty years. Most of these tanks are thin‐walled cylindrical shells. Owing to the high risk of gas explosions and the resulting deaths, injuries, and economic losses, more thorough damage analyses of these large structures should be conducted. This study examines the structural response of a simplified steel storage tank under a blast impact, as calculated by the LS‐DYNA software package. The numerical results are then compared with a scale‐model experiment. On that basis, the simplified storage tank prototype, which has a 15 × 104 m3 capacity, is analyzed using numerical simulation. In this study, we address issues around the variation in structural responses—particularly of the failure mode, resultant displacement, structural energy, and dynamic strain under the impact. In addition, we also discuss the effects of varying the internal liquid level, constraint conditions, and blast intensity.
Highlights
In the past twenty years, explosions caused by combustible gas from oil, petroleum, or chemical products have been reported frequently, both in China and elsewhere. ese disasters, which have caused severe casualties and considerable property damage, have typically occurred in tank farms and oil depots where many storage tanks can be damaged [1, 2].In 2005, a combustible air cloud, with thickness reaching up to 2 meters, was formed in Buncefield Oil Storage Depot in Hempstead, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. is combustible air cloud led to a terrible explosion, and 23 large atmospheric storage tanks were damaged in the accident
Numerical Model of Storage Tank Prototype. e main objective of this study is to develop an finite element (FE) model to simulate the response of long-span storage tank prototype under a blast impact
We have described the dynamic response of and damage to a simplified storage tank prototype with a capacity of 15 × 104 m3
Summary
In the past twenty years, explosions caused by combustible gas from oil, petroleum, or chemical products have been reported frequently, both in China and elsewhere. ese disasters, which have caused severe casualties and considerable property damage, have typically occurred in tank farms and oil depots where many storage tanks can be damaged [1, 2].In 2005, a combustible air cloud, with thickness reaching up to 2 meters, was formed in Buncefield Oil Storage Depot in Hempstead, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. is combustible air cloud led to a terrible explosion, and 23 large atmospheric storage tanks were damaged in the accident. Ese disasters, which have caused severe casualties and considerable property damage, have typically occurred in tank farms and oil depots where many storage tanks can be damaged [1, 2]. In 2005, a combustible air cloud, with thickness reaching up to 2 meters, was formed in Buncefield Oil Storage Depot in Hempstead, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. Is combustible air cloud led to a terrible explosion, and 23 large atmospheric storage tanks were damaged in the accident. In 2009, another severe explosion accident occurred at the Caribbean Petroleum Refining and Oil depot in Puerto Rico where the serial explosions damaged 18 oil storage tanks [4]. According to the statistics of oil storage tanks accidents by Chang and Lin, explosions occurred 61 times in total out of 242 accidents from 1960 to 2003 [5]. Steel storage tanks are designed as long-span and thin-walled structures [7,8,9]. e increasing scale of storage structures has prompted more serious damage and aggravates the consequences of an explosion [10, 11]
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