Thermal post-buckling behavior of oil storage tanks under a nearby fire

Abstract

This paper reports research on the thermal buckling and post-buckling of vertical steel tanks under heat induced by a nearby burning tank. A two-layer solid flame model is adopted and a heat transfer analysis is carried out to compute temperatures in the target tank. The temperatures are used as input in the structural analysis based on a geometrically nonlinear analysis and temperature-dependent properties of steel. The structural problem is solved by a finite element analysis to trace the pre- and post-critical equilibrium path. The lower critical temperature is detected and subsequent instabilities are identified until the temperature reaches the maximum value that can be transferred for the specific fuel burning. The post-buckling response is investigated to account for wind effects, separation between tanks, and fluid stored in the target tank. The ratio between first critical temperature and the final temperature at which the process reaches a thermal steady state, is computed in each case.