When an earthquake hits, a part of the bottom plate of the flat-bottom cylindrical tank which has no anchor device, or anchor rigidity of which is week, will be lifted up from the foundation due to overturning moment. As a result, the axial compressive force of shell bottom course will increase and such a damage of shell plate as “Elephant Foot Bulge” will be caused.
In this report, an effective method is developed in order to calculate quantitatively the rate of increase in the axial compressive force of shell plate as the ratio “C
A” of the compressive force calculated in case of considering the uplift of opposite side bottom plate to that in neglecting the uplift. And the characteristics of main factors which have influence on “C
A” are examined in the calculation example for a fullscale tank.
Firstly, a static rocking analysis model for calculating “C
A” is shown, in which the rigidity in the vertical direction of anchor and foundation right below shell plate is replaced with the springs of elasticperfectly plastic type, and the uplift resistance force due to the liquid pressure on the uplifted part of bottom plate is considered to act on the lower edge of shell plate. The axial compressive force of shell bottom course in tilt side can be obtained with the equilibrium equations concerning the overturning moment and the vertical forces, such as anchor reaction force, foundation reaction force, uplift resistance force and tank self weight.
Secondly, from the comparison between this model calculation and the static tilt test of a thin bottom plate model tank which has 2, 034mm in diameter, it is shown that the calculation results are good agreement with the test results.
Last, the characteristics of main factors having influence on “C
A” are examined by parametric studies for a 75, 000m
3 LNG storage tank. From these studies, it is clarified that; As the seismic loading becomes larger, the value of “C
A” increases. The less the rigidity of anchor becomes and/or the more that of foundation right below shell plate becomes, the higher the value of “C
A” grows. In the calculation example for the 75, 000m
3 LNG storage tank which is designed with current seismic design code in Japan, the change rate of “C
A” is small within the range of the seismic loading usually applied with design code, and the absolute value of “C
A” nearly equals that of the case in which the uplift of bottom plate is disregarded.
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