Buckling Analysis of a Super-Large Storage Tank

In this paper, buckling analysis was carried out on a super-large storage tank under uniform external pressure or wind pressure with finite element method. The critical pressures and buckling deformation modes are obtained and the effects of wind girders and reinforcing rings are investigated. It is found that the critical external pressure of the tank under uniformly applied external pressure obtained by the eigenvalue method is smaller than that obtained by the nonlinear method. Buckling only occurs on the windward side of the tank under the wind pressure. As strengthened by the wind girders and reinforcing rings at the upper par of the tank, buckling deformations here are much smaller than those at the lower part of the tank.