• Wind and Structures
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• 제31권6호
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• pp.483-493
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• 2020

Large cylindrical floating-roof tanks, constructed as oil containers, are usually distributed regularly in open area and easily exposed to severe wind loads. However, wind pressures around these grouped squat tanks appear to have not been clearly given in design codes or thoroughly studied in existing researches. This paper conducts a detailed investigation on wind loads on the external wall of a four-tank group in square arrangement. To achieve that, wind tunnel tests are carried out on both empty and full tank groups, considering various wind angles and spacing. Results show that 3 regions in elevation can be identified on the tank shell according to the circumferential wind pressure distribution. The upper 2 regions cover a relatively small portion of the shell where excessive negative pressures are spotted, setting an alarm to the design of the top angle and stiffening rings. By comparing results on grouped tanks to those on an isolated tank, grouping effects concerning wind angle, tank position in group and spacing are discussed. Deviations on pressure distributions that will compromise structural safety are outlined, including the increase of negative pressures, the shift of maximum pressure locations as well as the change of positive pressure range. And, several potentially unfavourable wind pressure distributions are selected for further analyses.

• Wind and Structures
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• 제31권6호
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• pp.495-508
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• 2020

To investigate the structural behaviour of grouped tanks under wind loads, 2 problems need to be figured out, wind pressures on tank shells and critical loads of the shell under these pressure distribution patterns. Following the wind tunnel tests described in the companion paper, this paper firstly seeks to obtain wind loads on the external wall in a squarely-arranged cylindrical tank group by numerical simulation, considering various layouts. The outcomes demonstrate that the numerical method can provide similar results on wind pressures and better insights on grouping effects through extracted streamlines. Then, geometrically nonlinear analyses are performed using several selected potentially unfavourable wind pressure distributions. It is found that the critical load is controlled by limit point buckling when the tank is empty while excessive deformations when the tank is full. In particular, significant reductions of wind resistance are found on grouped full tanks compared to the isolated tank, considering both serviceability and ultimate limit state, which should receive special attention if the tank is expected to resist severe wind loads with the increase of liquid level.