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Effect of Hydrostatic Pressure on Buckling Behavior of Storage Tanks Under

Local Support Settlement

Conference Paper  in  American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Pressure Vessels and Piping Division (Publication) PVP · July 2013
DOI: 10.1115/PVP2013-97964

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 Proceedings of the ASME 2013 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference
PVP2013
July 14-18, 2013, Paris, France

PVP2013-97964
EFFECT OF HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE ON BUCKLING BEHAVIOR OF STORAGE TANKS UNDER
LOCAL SUPPORT SETTLEMENT

Jianguo Gong
Institute of Process Equipment, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou 310027, China.
Email: cooljianguo@126.com

Sheng Zeng
Institute of Process Equipment, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou 310027, China.
Email: shengzeng@zju.edu.cn

Tao Jin*
Institute of Process Equipment, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou 310027, China.
*Corresponding author.
Email: cejintao@zju.edu.cn

ABSTRACT h2 Height of remaining levels of tapered shell

hcr Critical liquid height
In practical engineering, local settlement is a typical
k Slope of conical roof
differential settlement under structures. It has drawn the
p Hydrostatic pressure
attention of many researchers. This is because this kind of
t1 Thickness of the first level of tapered shell
settlement has an important effect on tank structure. From
t2 Thickness of the second level of tapered shell
research, the buckling behavior caused by local settlement has
t3 Thickness of remaining levels of tapered shell
been reported. In most research, the local settlement is usually
tave Average thickness of tapered shell
considered alone and the influence of hydrostatic pressure has
tc Thickness of conical roof
not been reported. This work studies the effect of hydrostatic
u Local settlement
pressure on the buckling strength of conical roof tanks under
umax Amplitude of local settlement
local settlement. The results show that the pressure has a
umax,cr Critical amplitude for tanks under local settlement
stiffening effect on buckling strength, preventing the shell from
umax,cr,hydro Critical amplitude for tanks under local settlement
buckling. In addition, for small uplift half angles, buckling may
and hydrostatic pressure
not occur for liquid heights larger than the critical liquid height;
w Radial displacement of a monitoring point
while for large uplift half angles buckling may occur with full
z Coordinate value in the z-direction
tanks. It is also shown that the critical local settlement for a
θ Angle for a point at the base
small uplift half angle is more sensitive to the liquid height and
θu Uplift half angle
hydrostatic pressure than the critical load for large uplift half
ν Poisson's ratio
angles. Finally, the relationship between the critical liquid height
ρ Density of liquid
and uplift half angle is reported.
DEFINITIONS
NOMENCLATURE
z Arc-length algorithm: Algorithm that is used for tracking the
E Young's modulus
equilibrium path in buckling analysis
H0 Maximum liquid height
z Buckling modes: Buckled shape after nonlinear arc-length
g Acceleration of gravity
buckling analysis, not an Eigenvalue extracted mode shape
h Liquid height
z Dimple buckling mode: Buckling mode presenting the form
h1 Height of first level of tapered shell
of dimple

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 z Elephant foot buckling: Buckling mode presenting the shape
of "elephant foot"
z Equilibrium paths: Relationship between load and distortion.
In this work, it means the relationship between settlement
and radial displacement
z Harmonic settlement: Settlement that is assumed as the form
of harmonic wave
z S4R: 4-node reduced integration shell element in ABAQUS
z Shearing buckling mode: Buckling mode presenting the form
of shearing
z Uplift half angle: Half of the circumferential angle at the
shell base that uplift acting
z Wave number: Number of wave along the circumference
INTRODUCTION
Differential settlement is widely observed beneath the wall
of cylindrical shells or tanks. It is usually considered the most
detrimental component among all components of the foundation
settlement beneath the shell wall. In practical engineering, there
are several kinds of the differential settlement. A typical case is
that part of the new tank is located on the oil consolidated by the
presence of a previous tank [1]. This kind of differential
settlement is usually called local support settlement (see Fig. 1),
which can cause buckling of cylindrical shells or tanks. The
buckling behavior caused by the local support settlement has
attracted attention of researchers.
COMPUTATIONAL MODEL
NUMERICAL MODEL
The finite element program ABAQUS [8] is used to set up
the finite element model and to perform the buckling analysis.
The conical roof tank mentioned by Godoy and Sosa [4-5] is
used in this work. It is composed of a cylindrical shell and a
conical roof (see Fig. 2). For the cylindrical shell, the radius and
the height are 15.12 m and 12.191 m, respectively. The
cylindrical shell has a tapered thickness. For the thickness of the
cylindrical shell, the first level of the shell is t1=11.4 mm, the
second level is t2=9.5 mm and the remaining three levels are
t3=7.9 mm. For the height of each course, the first course is
h1=2.425 m, while the remaining four courses are all h2=2.416
m. For the conical roof, the slope and the thickness of the roof
are k=3/16 and tc=12.5 mm, respectively. To reduce the
computation effort, symmetry is adopted with a 90 degree model
for uplift half angle smaller than 20°, and 180 degree models
used for uplift half angle larger than 20°. The tank is defined in
the cylindrical coordinate system (i.e., x-radial direction,
y-circumferential direction, z-meridional direction). The tank is
discretized by the 4-node shell element S4R. The element and
node number are dependent on the model size. Take the uplift
half angle of 11.25° for example (see Fig. 3). The element and
node number for the model are 15,519 and 15,711, respectively.

FIG. 1 LOCAL SUPPORT SETTLEMENT BENEATH TANK

WALL (FROM REF. [2])

In past several decades, the buckling behavior of cylindrical

shells or tanks under the local settlement has been investigated FIG. 2 GEOMETRICAL MODEL OF CONICAL ROOF TANK
by several researchers, such as the work of Holst and Rotter
[1-3], Godoy and Sosa [4-5] and Cao and Zhao [6]. However,
these works are limited to local support settlement alone. In
practical engineering, the tanks are usually subjected to
hydrostatic pressure, so its influence on buckling strength of
tanks cannot be ignored. As far as the authors know, the effect of
hydrostatic pressure was mainly studied by Jonaidi et. al [7]. It
was observed that the failure occurs close to the tank base as the
mode of elephant foot buckling. However, their study is limited
to harmonic settlement, which is different from what the authors
will discuss (local support settlement) in this paper. In this work,
the influence of hydrostatic pressure on buckling strength of FIG. 3 FINITE ELEMENT MODEL OF CONICAL ROOF TANK
UNDER LOCAL SETTLEMENT AND HYDROSTATIC
conical roof tanks subjected to local support settlement will be
PRESSURE (θu=11.25°)
reported.
The structure of this work is arranged as follows: In Section In addition, the medium and the liquid height are not given
2, the finite element model of a conical roof tank is introduced. by Godoy and Sosa [4-5]. This is because the influence of
In Section 3, the buckling behavior of the empty conical roof hydrostatic pressure on buckling behavior of tanks is out of their
tank subjected to local support settlement for various uplift half concern. Considering that many petrochemical products have a
angles is reported. In Section 4, the influence of hydrostatic smaller density than water, the density of the liquid is assumed
pressure on buckling strength of conical roof tanks under local with ρ=900 kg/m3. For the maximum liquid height, it is assumed
settlement is given. Section 5 contains a discussion of the with H0=11.691 m.  
results.
 

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 The conical roof tank may produce a large deflection when
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS the tank buckles. Thus, the geometrical nonlinear behavior
should also be included, as well as the material nonlinear law. In
The following boundary conditions are prescribed at their
following, the arc-length algorithm is adopted to follow the
defined locations:
pre-buckling and post-buckling stages.
(1) The symmetry constraints are exerted on the meridional
cut edges.
BUCKLING BEHAVIOR OF EMPTY CONICAL ROOF
(2) For the shell base, the radial and circumferential
TANK
constraints are applied and the axial displacement at the base
(see Fig. 4) is shown as Eq.(1). Before studying the effect of hydrostatic pressure on
⎧ u ⎛ ⎛ πθ ⎞ ⎞ buckling strength of conical roof tanks, the buckling behavior of
⎪⎪u = max ⎜⎜1 + cos ⎜ ⎟ ⎟⎟ ( −θu ≤ θ ≤ θu ) the empty conical roof tank should be found. For this, the
⎨ 2 ⎝ ⎝ θu ⎠ ⎠ (1) buckling behavior of empty conical roof tanks for various uplift
⎪
⎪⎩u = 0 ( θ > θu )
half angles, including θu=7.5°, 11.25°, 30°, 60°, are considered.

FIG. 4 LOCAL SETTLEMENT IMPOSED AT SHELL BASE
(3) The hydrostatic pressure is applied on the inner surface
(see Fig. 3), presented as Eq. (2).
p = ρg ( H 0 − z ) (2)
MATERIAL PROPERTIES & SOLUTION ALGORITHMS
When the hydrostatic pressure and local settlement are
included together, the maximum stress may exceed the yield
stress of the material. In order to make the results more accurate,
considering the material elasto-plastic behavior is necessary. In
following, a steel grade of 16MnR steel, with a linear Young's
modulus E of 2.01×105MPa and Poisson's ratio ν of 0.3, is
assumed for this tank. The stress-strain curve for 16MnR steel is
displayed in Fig. 5 [9].
BUCKLING MODES
Buckling modes of empty conical roof tanks for various
uplift half angles are shown in Figs. 6-9. It should be noted that
only the deformed model is considered. Meanwhile, the
corresponding equilibrium paths for the monitoring points
located at the buckling crest are shown in Fig. 10. The vertical
axis stands for the maximum uplift normalized with respect to
the average shell thickness, while the horizontal axis is the
radial displacement normalized by the average thickness of the
shell. It can be observed that for a very small uplift half angle
(e.g. θu=7.5°), buckling occurs at the first course of the
cylindrical shell. Then, with the increasing of the uplift half
angle (e.g. θu=11.25°), the location of buckling is on the thinnest
course of the cylindrical shell. Moreover, when the tank buckles
(Status A, see Fig. 7), the buckling shape is the inward
displacement of the shell and the dimple buckling mode is
dominant in the post-buckling stage (Status B, see Fig. 7). For
uplift half angle of 30°, when the tank buckles, buckling is not
located at the cylindrical shell, but at the conical roof. It should
be noted that its post-buckling mode also displays the
shearing-buckling mode (see Fig. 8). However, the
shearing-buckling mode is not remarkable for a larger uplift half
angle (e.g. θu=60°). For uplift half angle of 60°, the main
buckling distortion is located at the conical roof.

FIG. 6 BUCKLING MODES OF CONICAL ROOF TANKS

SUBJECTED TO LOCAL SETTLEMENT (θu=7.5°)

FIG. 5 STRESS-STRAIN CURVE FOR 16MnR STEEL

 
 

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FIG. 7 BUCKLING MODES OF CONICAL ROOF TANKS
SUBJECTED TO LOCAL SETTLEMENT (θu=11.25°)
FIG. 8 BUCKLING MODES OF CONICAL ROOF TANKS
SUBJECTED TO LOCAL SETTLEMENT (θu=30°)
FIG. 9 BUCKLING MODE OF CONICAL ROOF TANKS
SUBJECTED TO LOCAL SETTLEMENT (θu=60°)
FIG. 10 EQUILIBRIUM PATHS OF EMPTY CONICAL ROOF
TANKS FOR VARIOUS UPLIFT HALF ANGLES
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As a whole, buckling occurs at the cylindrical shell for
small uplift half angles, while it happens at the conical roof for
large uplift half angles. This is mainly because the local
settlement at the base of the shell can be transferred to the
conical roof for a large uplift half angle, but it can only be
transferred to somewhere of cylindrical shell for a small uplift
half angle. Although the local settlement studied in this work is
not much like the harmonic settlement in previous work of the
authors [10], they have a close relationship with each other. In
Ref. [10], buckling happens at the cylindrical shell for a large
wave number, while it changes to the conical roof for a small
wave number. For the relationship of the two, it can be
understood like this: a small wave number corresponds to a
large uplift half angle, while a large wave number is much like
that for a small uplift half angle. This is why these two kinds of
settlements display the similar behavior.
CRITICAL LOCAL SETTLEMENT VERSUS UPLIFT
HALF ANGLE
The critical local settlement versus uplift half angle is
displayed in Fig. 11. The vertical axis is the critical local
settlement normalized with respect to the average shell
thickness, while the horizontal axis is the uplift half angle. It can
be observed that the critical local settlement increases with the
uplift half angle. Moreover, the critical local settlement for a
large uplift half angle is much larger than that for a small uplift
half angle. Meanwhile, it should be noted that as pointed out in
above sections, buckling occurs at the cylindrical shell for a
small uplift half angle, but it changes to the conical roof for a
large uplift half angle.
FIG. 11 CRITICAL LOCAL SETTLEMENT OF EMPTY
CONICAL ROOF TANKS FOR VARIOUS UPLIFT HALF
ANGLES
INFLUENCE OF HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE
When studying the effect of hydrostatic pressure, two steps
need to be set up in ABAQUS. The first step is to introduce the
hydrostatic pressure. The second step is to impose the local
support settlement and then to sought the bifurcation. For the
effect of hydrostatic pressure, detailed discussions are provided
below.
 BUCKLING MODES
In this section, the uplift half angles of 11.25° and 30° are
taken as two examples. When the tank buckles, the buckling
modes of conical roof tanks for various liquid heights are
displayed in Figs. 12-13.
FIG. 12 BUCKLING MODES OF CONICAL ROOF TANKS
FOR VARIOUS LIQUID HEIGHTS (θu=11.25°)
FIG. 13 BUCKLING MODES OF CONICAL ROOF TANKS
FOR VARIOUS LIQUID HEIGHTS (θu=30°)
For the uplift half angle of 11.25°, the buckling shape takes
on the form of the inward displacement of the shell for the
empty conical roof tank when the tank buckles. With the
influence of hydrostatic pressure, as shown in Fig. 12, it is
shown that for the liquid height smaller than and equal to 0.44
H0, the buckling mode presents the inward shell displacement,
which is much like that of the empty conical roof tanks.
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However, for the liquid height of 0.44 H0, the elephant foot
displacement is not very evident (see Fig. 12). However,
buckling does not occur any more for the liquid height larger
than 0.44 H0. At this time, the shell experiences the elephant
foot distortion at the place close to the base of the shell (see Fig.
12). This is mainly because the hydrostatic pressure acting on
the inner surface causes the outward shell displacement of a
certain value. At this time, the initial outward shell displacement
induced by the hydrostatic pressure makes the inward
displacement caused by the local settlement impossible. Thus,
the shell displacement is outward, not inward. This is why the
elephant-foot distortion is dominant. It should be noted that for a
small liquid height, the effect of the hydrostatic pressure on the
shell is limited. Therefore, for a small liquid height, the buckling
distortion does not present a localized remarkable elephant-foot
displacement.
For the uplift half angle of 30°, it has been found that the
buckling distortion for the empty conical roof tank is mainly
located at the conical roof. A post-buckling mode may also
occur on the cylindrical shell, presenting shearing buckling
distortion. For the effect of hydrostatic pressure, as shown in Fig.
13, it can be indicated that for the liquid height smaller than
0.85 H0, the buckling shape is located at the conical roof when
the tank buckles, which is much like that of empty conical roof
tanks. When the liquid height is 0.85 H0, the outward
elephant-foot distortion becomes more significant (see Fig. 13).
However, buckling does not happen any longer when the liquid
height is larger than 0.85 H0. In this case, the shell presents the
outward elephant-foot displacement at the bottom of the base
(see Fig. 13). The reason why the shell shows elephant-foot
distortion is similar to that for uplift half angle of 11.25°.
CRITICAL LOCAL SETTLEMENT VERSUS LIQUID
HEIGHT
The critical local settlement versus liquid height for various
uplift half angles is displayed in Fig. 14. It is indicated that for a
certain uplift half angle, the critical local settlement increases
with the liquid height increasing. This is because the liquid
stored inside the tank has a stiffening effect on the conical roof
tank. Moreover, for a small uplift half angle, the conical roof
tank is more sensitive to the liquid height inside the tank. A
small increase of liquid height can cause a large increase of the
buckling strength of the conical roof tank. This is because the
buckling crest is close to the bottom of the shell for a small
uplift half angle. Moreover, the buckling zone is subjected to a
high hydrostatic pressure. Therefore, the hydrostatic pressure
has a strong stiffening effect on buckling strength of conical
roof tanks. In contract, the buckling strength has a very limited
increase for a large uplift half angle (e.g. θu=60°). This is
because buckling happens at the conical roof and the hydrostatic
pressure acting on the cylindrical shell has a small stiffening
effect on buckling strength. In addition, it should be noted that
for small uplift half angles (e.g. θu=7.5°, 11.25° and 30°),
buckling does not happen when the liquid height is larger than a
critical liquid height. For example, for the uplift half angle of
11.25°, the limit point cannot be obtained when the liquid height
is higher than 0.44 H0. The relationship between the critical
liquid height and uplift half angle will be discussed in following
 section.
FIG. 14 CRITICAL LOCAL SETTLEMENT VERSUS LIQUID
HEIGHT FOR VARIOUS UPLIFT HALF ANGLES
DISCUSSION
In above section, it is found that the buckling does not
occur when the liquid height exceeds a certain value, named
critical liquid height herein. It should be noted that for large
uplift half angles (e.g. θu=60°), buckling still occurs even when
the conical roof tank is full. The critical liquid height versus
uplift half angle is shown in Fig. 15. It can be indicated that the
critical liquid height increases with the uplift half angle.
However, when the uplift half angle is larger than a critical
angle, buckling still occurs if the local settlement is large
enough and the critical liquid height does not exist. In this case,
the critical value is about 35°.
This figure can be used for evaluating the status of conical
roof tanks subjected to local settlement. If the real uplift half
angle is smaller than the critical uplift half angle, the
corresponding critical liquid height can be found through
interpolations of Fig. 15. At this time, conical roof tank does not
buckle if the liquid height is larger than the corresponding
critical liquid height. If the real uplift half angle is beyond this
critical angle (35°), whether the tank buckles depends on the
amplitude of the local settlement and the carrying capacity of
conical roof tank. As a whole, the liquid stored inside the tank
can be used to avoid the possible buckling for tanks subjected to
local support settlement.
FIG. 15 CRITICAL LIQUID HEIGHT VERSUS UPLIFT HALF
ANGLES
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CONCLUSIONS
In this work, the effect of hydrostatic pressure on buckling
strength of conical roof tanks under the local support settlement
has been investigated by way of numerical studies. The
following conclusions can be drawn from the above
investigations.
1) For empty conical roof tanks subjected to local
settlement, buckling happens at the cylindrical shell for a small
uplift half angle. However, it changes to the conical roof for a
large uplift half angle. Besides, the critical local settlement
increases with the uplift half angle on the increase.
2) For a small uplift half angle, the buckling mode nearly
has no significant change for liquid heights smaller than the
critical height, but buckling does not happen for the liquid
height larger than the critical liquid height. However, for a large
uplift angle, buckling still occurs if the local settlement is large
enough even when the tank is full.
3) The critical local settlement for a small uplift half angle
is much more sensitive to the liquid height or hydrostatic
pressure than that for a large uplift half angle.
4) The critical liquid height increases with the increasing of
the uplift half angle. However, the critical liquid height does not
exist when the uplift half angle exceeds a certain uplift half
angle. At this time, buckling still happens if the local settlement
is large enough even when the tank is full.
REFERENCES
1. Holst, J. M. F. G., and Rotter, J. M., “Settlement beneath
cylindrical shells,” in Buckling of Thin Metal Shells, ed.
Teng, J. G., and Rotter, J. M. (London: Spon Press, 2004),
129-153.
2. Holst, J. M. F. G., and Rotter, J. M., “Nonlinear response
and buckling of cylindrical tanks due to foundation
settlement” (paper presented at the International
Conference on Design, Inspection and Maintenance of
Cylindrical Steel Tanks and Pipelines, Prague, Czech
Republic, October 9-11, 2003, pp. 29-35).
3. Holst, J. M. F. G., and Rotter, J. M., “Axially compressed
cylindrical shells with local settlement,” Thin-Walled
Structures 43(2005): 811-825.
4. Godoy, L, A., and Sosa, E. M., “Localized support
settlements of thin-walled storage tanks,” Thin-Walled
Structures 41(2003): 941-955.
5. Godoy, L, A., and Sosa, E. M., “Deflections of thin-walled
storage tanks with roof due to localized support settlement,”
(paper presented at the Second International Conference on
Advances in Structural Engineering and Mechanics, Seoul,
Korea, 2002).
6. Zhao, Y., and Fan, B., “Stability analysis of tapered floating
roof steel storage tanks under measured differential
settlement,” Journal of Engineering Design 15(2008):
472-476. [in Chinese]
7. Jonaidi, M., Chaaya, M., and Ansourian, P., “Cylindrical
shells subjected to vertical edge deformation and internal
pressure,” (paper presented at the Second International
Conference on Thin-Walled Structures, Singapore, 1998, pp.
613-620).
8. Hibbit, Karlsson and Sorensen. ABAQUS user's manual,
 version 6.10, Michigan, USA; 2010.
9. Yu, C., et al., “Effect of weld reinforcement on axial plastic
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10. Gong, J., et al., “Buckling analysis of large scale oil tanks
with a conical roof subjected to harmonic settlement,”
Thin-Walled Structures 52(2012): 143-148.

 
 

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