Design procedure for liquid storage steel conical tanks under seismic loading

Abstract

Steel conical liquid tanks are widely used for the purpose of liquid storage. Despite the fact that some of these tanks have failed lately, most of the seismic design guidelines focus on the design of steel cylindrical tanks with the only design guidelines for conical tanks based on using an equivalent cylinder approach, which is not based on any theoretical or experimental basis. In this study, a simplified procedure is proposed to design steel conical tanks subjected to horizontal and vertical excitations. The proposed procedure is based on satisfying a design formula that combines the ratio of seismic demand to the tank resistance due to horizontal and vertical excitations including geometric imperfections. The design procedure is then validated by comparing its outcomes with those obtained using time history analysis. The study is carried out numerically using an in-house nonlinear finite element model.