Numerical Study of Oil Storage Tanks during Planar Settlement

Abstract

Inspection and maintenance are necessary to maintain the continuity of critical equipment operations such as oil storage tank. The criteria for the various types of settlement specified in American Petroleum Institute (API) 653. However, the criteria for planar settlement could not be determined. In this paper, a finite element model is developed to study the hoop stress of the tank during planar settlement. In this paper, 384 finite element models were built in order to predict the most effective allowable planar settlement at oil storage tanks. Each model is variation of the tank size, shell plate thickness, seismic zone and planar tilt of the tank. Based on size of tank population in Pertamina, 8 of standard tank size from 500-10.000 m3 were simulated. The simulation results are validated by case study in 500-5.000 m3 full scale oil storage tank. From the results, equation for criteria of planar settlement has been created.