Performance of cylindrical liquid storage tanks in Silakhor, Iran earthquake of March 31, 2006

Abstract

Several on-ground cylindrical liquid storage tanks experienced strong ground motion during the “Silakhor” earthquake of March 31, 2006 in western Iran, and some of the tanks suffered minor to moderate damage. In this study two of the affected tanks that were located close to the station of recording the time history of the earthquake were investigated. Responses of these tanks to the earthquake were estimated using published methods and also non-linear time history analysis, for both rigid foundation and flexible foundation assumptions. Theoretical results were compared and were generally in good agreement with the observed performance of tanks during the earthquake. For the broad tank uplift displacements observed from the earthquake matched quite closely the predictions of numerical analysis and some of the published methods, although there was a significant variation in the predictions of various methods. It was also shown that axial stresses in tank shells uplifting under earthquake are very dependent on the rigidity of the foundation.