Failure assessment of steel thin-walled cylindrical tanks subjected to shell settlement

Abstract

Steel thin-walled tanks have been of particular interest in the tank industry from the past to the present due to their unique features. Settlement is one of the most critical conditions that causes widespread damage in reservoirs, and the reason for that is the large volume of reservoirs, improper design, and poor soil condition. According to API 653, differential settlement is the most important cause of failure among them, and local one of the shell edges is a subset of this type of settlement. On this basis, the main objective of this research endeavor is to investigate the nonlinear response of steel storage tanks with and without a roof under local edge settlement. For this purpose, an experimental and numerical study was conducted to investigate the settlement capacity, nonlinear response, and out-of-plane behavior. In this regard, various regulations, and standards, including API 650, API 653, API 625, EEMUA 159 and PIP STE03020, were examined. The findings revealed that the allowable settlement takes place before the initial buckling and snap-through phenomenon occurs in tanks under local edge settlement.