Potential Damages of Atmospheric Storage Tanks due to Volcanic Ash Aggregations in Presence of Water

Abstract

Recent studies of the effects of the volcanic ash fallout on storage tanks have shown the potential causes of failure for both fixed and floating roof tanks. The vulnerability of these facilities has been defined through the estimation of threshold values of the ash load on their roofs and exceedance probabilities of these limits. It has been observed that the amount of the overhead on the roof is much greater when the ash is saturated with rain because of the formation of aggregates. This paper aims to analyse the influence of this phenomenon on the potential damage of tanks located in the area surrounding Mt. Etna.