Abstract
Several on-ground cylindrical liquid storage tanks experienced strong ground motion during the “Silakhor” earthquake of March 31, 2006 in western Iran, and some of the tanks suffered minor to moderate damage. In this study two of the affected tanks that were located close to the station of recording the time history of the earthquake were investigated. Responses of these tanks to the earthquake were estimated using published methods and also non-linear time history analysis, for both rigid foundation and flexible foundation assumptions. Theoretical results were compared and were generally in good agreement with the observed performance of tanks during the earthquake. For the broad tank uplift displacements observed from the earthquake matched quite closely the predictions of numerical analysis and some of the published methods, although there was a significant variation in the predictions of various methods. It was also shown that axial stresses in tank shells uplifting under earthquake are very dependent on the rigidity of the foundation.
Highlights
Understanding of the dynamic behaviour of complex structures such as liquid storage tanks is enhanced by the combined use of theoretical approaches and experimental techniques
Several on-ground cylindrical liquid storage tanks experienced strong ground motion during the “Silakhor” earthquake of March 31, 2006 in western Iran, and some of the tanks suffered minor to moderate damage
For the broad tank uplift displacements observed from the earthquake matched quite closely the predictions of numerical analysis and some of the published methods, there was a significant variation in the predictions of various methods
Summary
Understanding of the dynamic behaviour of complex structures such as liquid storage tanks is enhanced by the combined use of theoretical approaches and experimental techniques. If the response of a structure to a certain earthquake is recorded, it offers an opportunity to directly study the dynamic behaviour. For special structures like cylindrical liquid storage tanks, due to the operational limitations of instrumentation (e.g. shape of the structure), it can be difficult to obtain detailed measurements of structural response during earthquake shaking (Eshghi, Razzaghi, 2006). If the ground motion that the structure was subjected to is recorded, observable damage and evidence of dynamic response of the structure can provide useful tools to calibrate analytical models of the behaviour. More than 25 on-grade cylindrical steel tanks were located in the earthquake affected region and some of them suffered minor to moderate damage
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