Comparison of Buckling of Aboveground Oil Storage Tanks and Cylindrical Shells under both Internal and External Liquid Pressure

Abstract

Powerful tsunami attacked to the northeast coast of Japan due to the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011. Some aboveground storage tanks (ASTs) were subjected to external pressure due to the tsunami. This paper presents the bifurcation buckling of shell plates in 1,000 m³, 10,000 m³ and 90,000 m³ AST under both internal and external liquid pressure using the axisymmetric shell finite element method. The buckling of cylindrical shells which have the same diameter and thickness as ASTs has been also analyzed for the comparison. The buckling liquid height of an AST is less than that of a cylindrical shell. The reduction ratio of buckling liquid height of an AST from a cylindrical shell is proposed. The buckling liquid height of an AST can be simply obtained from that of a cylindrical shell using the reduction ratio.