Effect of Hydrostatic Pressure on Buckling Behavior of Storage Tanks Under Local Support Settlement

In practical engineering, local settlement is a typical differential settlement under structures. It has drawn the attention of many researchers. This is because this kind of settlement has an important effect on tank structure. From research, the buckling behavior caused by local settlement has been reported. In most research, the local settlement is usually considered alone and the influence of hydrostatic pressure has not been reported. This work studies the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the buckling strength of conical roof tanks under local settlement. The results show that the pressure has a stiffening effect on buckling strength, preventing the shell from buckling. In addition, for small uplift half angles, buckling may not occur for liquid heights larger than the critical liquid height; while for large uplift half angles buckling may occur with full tanks. It is also shown that the critical local settlement for a small uplift half angle is more sensitive to the liquid height and hydrostatic pressure than the critical load for large uplift half angles. Finally, the relationship between the critical liquid height and uplift half angle is reported.Copyright © 2013 by ASME