Behavior of bolted lap joints in above ground liquid-filled steel cylindrical tanks

Abstract

Leakage is the main concern in steel bolted liquid tanks. In this study, the performance of this type of construction is investigated using a detailed finite element (FE) analysis. The validity of AWWA design practice in terms of the safe design of this type of structure at a wide range of service loads is evaluated. The FE analysis is performed in two stages using shell and solid elements in a three-dimensional ANSYS environment including the effect of geometric nonlinearity. The proposed FE model is capable to estimate the ultimate behaviors such as capacity curve, yield/failure pattern, and the occurrence of ovalling and curling. The FE results are compared with experimental ones and a good agreement is found. This study shows that the bolt arrangement selected in design can efficiently improve joint performance. It is recommended to use the limited deformation criterion in the leak-resistant design of bolted lap joints.