International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping: Xiushan Sun, Yinghua Liu, Jianbin Wang, Zhangzhi Cen
International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping: Xiushan Sun, Yinghua Liu, Jianbin Wang, Zhangzhi Cen
International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping: Xiushan Sun, Yinghua Liu, Jianbin Wang, Zhangzhi Cen
a r t i c l e in f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 22 June 2007
Received in revised form
24 March 2008
Accepted 27 March 2008
This paper proposes a load-modifying method for the stress and deection analyses of oating roofs
used in cylindrical oil storage tanks. The formulations of loads and deformations are derived according
to the equilibrium analysis of oating roofs. Based on these formulations, the load-modifying method is
developed to conduct a geometrically nonlinear analysis of oating roofs with the nite element (FE)
simulation. In the procedure with the load-modifying method, the analysis is carried out through a
series of iterative computations until a convergence is achieved within the error tolerance. Numerical
examples are given to demonstrate the validity and reliability of the proposed method, which provides
an effective and practical numerical solution to the design and analysis of oating roofs.
& 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Floating roof
Rainwater load
Load-modifying method
Deection
Nonlinear analysis
1. Introduction
Floating roofs are widely used in the middle- and large-scale
cylindrical tanks for crude oil and other liquid hydrocarbon
storages around the world because of their advantages such as
reducing product evaporation, improving safety, overall operating
economy, etc. After a history of over 80 years with continual
development and improvement, modern oating roofs with larger
diameters for open-top tanks can be classied usually into two
common types: single-deck type and double-deck type [15]. The
single-deck oating roof consists of characteristically a circular
deck plate and a pontoon (i.e. a compartmented buoyant ring)
which are both constructed with thin plates and jointed together
by a connection component, e.g. an angle-iron ring. To meet the
increasing capacity of oil storage tanks and to improve the
performance of the traditional single-type and double-type
oating roofs, a new-style oating roof with continuous
beams was also developed [6]. This oating roof has more
complex components, which increases somewhat the difculty
of structural analysis.
In the practical operation, the oating roof is usually subjected
to rainwater loading resulting from the accumulated rainfall.
The rainwater loading will result in a much larger deformation
(or deection) in the deck compared with the plate thickness. In
many codes for the design of oating roofs, the whole structure is
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Nomenclature
R1,R 1
a
c1,c2
R2,R 2
C
E
f(r)
fmax
F
g
Gs
h0
hc
hs
hw
ha
H0
H1, H2
Hg
i
KL, KNL
M
Mc
Nr
Na
Nv
pb(r)
q(r)
qc
qs
qw
Q
r
R0
Rm
Rw
t
t1, t2
t3, t4
V1, V2
Ve
wA, wB
z
a
d1, d2
Dh0
Dhw
Dhs
DH
e
l0
lw
n
y
r0
r1
t; t
tw
f
729
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Fig. 3. Deformation of the oating roof in case the rainwater lls only part of the
deck plate.
Fig. 4. Deformation of the oating roof in case the rainwater lls the whole deck
plate.
Mc g
2
pR 2
(2)
qw r0 gf r t=2 hw
(3)
qs r1 gf r t=2 hs
(4)
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2p
Rw
qrr dr 2p
0
2p
R 2
qrr dr M Mc g
Rw
R 1
R 2
pb rr dr 0
pb r r1 ghs H0 R 1 r tana f
(6)
where a and f are the tilt angle of the pontoons bottom plate and
rotation angle of the pontoon, respectively.
The liquid head hs can be derived from Eq. (5) as
r
r
t r0 2
hs 0 t2w hw hc 0 lw 1
tw 1 t 2
2 r1
r1
r1
2
DH ha 1 t
(7a)
and
R R 2
0
Hg
2
2
pr1 R 1 R 2
rf rdr
(9)
2
R 2
1 2t
R 1 R 2 tana f
3 3t
c2
R 2
t
t ;
c1
R 1
R2
;
R1
dk
ck 1
; R k ck Rk
Rk
R Rw
lw R0
R2
0
rf r dr
(8)
tw
(10)
Rw
R 2
k 1; 2
(11)
(12)
(14)
R20 h0
(15a)
hw f Rw
Rw
rf r f Rw dr pR20 h0
(16)
R20
2
R 2
h0 hc
t
2
(15b)
(13a)
rf r dr
(7b)
Eqs. (7a) and (7b) provide the relationships between the water
head hw and the liquid head hs.
As it is pointed out, the redistributions of the rainwater due to
deection of the deck plate are different for cases that rainwater
lls whole or part of the deck plate. For the case that the rainwater
lls only part of the deck plate (l041), the water head hw can be
obtained as (Fig. 3)
2
R 2 hc
where R0 is the radius of the tank. If l0p1, the rainwater lls the
whole deck plate; otherwise, the rainwater lls only part of the
deck plate.
Additionally, the ratio of equivalent volumes, lw, can also be
computed with the following formula:
8
1;
l0 p1
>
>
< 2
2
(13b)
lw R0 h0 Rw f Rw ; l 41
0
>
2
>
:
R 2 hc
2p
DH H0 Hg ;
ha
l0
(5)
where M is the total mass of the oating roof; pb(r) is the pressure
applied on the bottom plate of the oating roof (Fig. 2) and
hc
(1b)
where qc, qw and qs have the same meanings as in Eq. (1a), but it
should be noted that the water head hw takes a positive value in
Eq. (1b).
In Eq. (3), the water head hw is dened as positive value when
the rainwater surface is above the installing position of the deck
plate and as negative value when the rainwater surface is below
this installing position (Figs. 3 and 4). It can be found that Eq. (1b)
can be obtained with Eq. (1a) when Rw R 2 . Accordingly, without
loss of generality, Eq. (1a) is used to carry out the following
derivations unless specied otherwise.
The deection of the deck plate can be treated as same along
the circumference at a given position, r, and the equilibrium
equation of the oating roof in the vertical direction can be
written as
731
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"
R20 r0
t
DH hc t 2 Hg
2r
2
R 1 1
2
ha 1 t R1 r tana f ; R 2 prpR 1
pb r r1 g h0
hs h0
(19b)
R20 r0
t 2
t DH ha 1 t 2
hc
2r
2
R 1
(20b)
180 wB wA
p R1 R2
(17)
>
>
>
r1
r1
Mc
2
>
>
< hc t lw r0 pR 22 r0 f r 1 r0 ; 0prpRw
h
qr
>
>
r0 g rr1 DH 2t ha 1 t 2 f Rw 2t t2w t 2
>
0
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
hc t 2 lw rr1 M2 c f r rr1 ; Rw orpR 2
:
0
0
pR r
2 0
Eqs. (18a)(20b) show that the variables q(r), pb(r), hs and also
hw in Eqs. (15a) and (15b) are all relevant to the deection f(r).
Usually, the net pressure q(r) distributes nonuniformly along the
radial direction on the deck plate and is a function of the
deection f(r) when the liquid density is not equal to the water
density, i.e. r16r0.
Generally speaking, the radial deformations of the pontoon,
i.e. d1 and d2, are much smaller compared with the radii R1
and R2, and the coefcients c1 and c2 can be taken as c1 c2 1 in
order to simplify the computation. That is to say, the variable
values in all above equations can be computed with the initial
dimensions (no deformation) of the oating roof, i.e. R 1 R1 , R 2
R2 and as a result that t t. In addition, the rotation angle of
pontoon, f, is also a tiny value. If f is small enough and
contributes little to the pressure pb(r) in Eqs. (19a) and (19b) or
to parameter ha in Eq. (10), it can also be neglected in order to
simplify the computation.
2.3. Water test condition
Now consider a special but practical condition, the so-called
water test condition, when liquid in the tank is water and r1 r0.
For example, for the case that the rainwater lls the whole deck
plate (l0p1), substituting r1 r0 into Eq. (18b), we see the net
pressure
"
!
#
R2
t
Mc
qr r0 g h0 02 DH hc ha 1 t 2 2
(21)
2
pR r
R
2
(18a)
r
r
t r0 2
pb r r1 g hc 0 lw 1 DH 0 t2w f Rw
tw 1 t 2
2 r1
r1
r1
Hg ha 1 t 2 R 1 r tana f ; R 2 prpR 1 (19a)
(20a)
(2) For the case that the rainwater lls the whole deck
plate (l0p1):
("
#
r1
t
h
DH
1 t 2
a
2
2
R 2 r0
)
r
Mc
r
hc 1 1 t 2 2 f r 1 1
r0
r0
pR 2 r0
qr r0 g
h0
hs h0
t 2
t DH ha 1 t 2
h
c
2
2
R
R20
(23)
The water head hw has the same formulation as that in Eq. (15b).
3. Load-modifying method
r
r
t r0 2
tw 1 t 2
hs hc 0 lw 1 0 t2w f Rw
2 r1
r1
r1
DH ha 1 t 2
2 0
R20
(18b)
(24)
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733
4. Numerical examples
Two typical oating roofs are presented in this section to
demonstrate the applications of the proposed method. The rst
example is about a traditional single-deck oating roof with larger
diameter [12,13], which is used to demonstrate the reliability of
the present method for the analysis of general single-deck oating
roofs. The other example is an experimental model of oating roof
with continuous beams in both the top and the bottom plates of
the pontoon [6]. This example is used to demonstrate the validity
of the present method for analysis of oating roofs with 3-D
complex structures or components. The operation condition and
water test condition are considered in these two examples,
respectively. Additionally, the case of rainwater lling only part
of the deck plate is demonstrated in the rst example and the case
of rainwater lling the whole deck plate is demonstrated in the
other example.
4.1. A traditional single-deck oating roof
A traditional oating roof with a larger diameter in operation
condition under a total 250 mm rainfall is examined in this
example to demonstrate the application of the present method.
Table 1
Parameters of the single-deck oating roof
Parameter
Value
R0
R1
R2
H0
H1
H2
t
t1
t2
t3, t4
a
r1
Mc
M
E
n
40,000 mm
39,600 mm
34,600 mm
300 mm
800 mm
450 mm
4.5 mm
8.0 mm
12.0 mm
4.5 mm
01
0.7 106 kg/mm3
152,000 kg
307,000 kg
210,000 MPa
0.3
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1.5
i=0
i=1
i=4
i=7
i=8
i=10
i=13
i=15
i=16
1.0
0.5
0.0
-0.5
-1.0
-1.5
-2.0
-2.5
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
radius r (mm)
25000
30000
Fig. 8. Procedures of the modied computation for net pressures on the deck plate.
35000
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735
1600
present method (near bulkhead)
present method (away from bulkhead)
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
radiums, r (mm)
25000
30000
35000
Fig. 10. Deection of the deck plate under rainfall h0 250 mm.
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
radius, r (mm)
Fig. 11. Radial stress of the deck plate under rainfall h0 250 mm.
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Fig. 13. FE mesh of the oating roof with continuous beams: (a) one-eighteenth
structure (one compartment); and (b) pontoon with continuous beams (view
without the top plate).
Fig. 12. Model of the oating roof with continuous beams: (a) experimental
model; and (b) pontoon with continuous beams (topoblique view without the
top plate).
Table 2
Parameters of the model of oating roof with continuous beams
Parameter
Value
R1
R2
H0
H1
H2
t
t1, t2, t3, t4
a
Nr
Na
Nv
r1
Mc
M
E
n
4010 mm
3414 mm
57.5 mm
170 mm
140 mm
1.0 mm
1.0 mm
01
4 2 18
22
8 18
1.0 106 kg/mm3
286 kg
734 kg
200,000 MPa
0.334
Table 3
Procedures of the modied computation under rainfall h0 50 mm
Modication i
fmax (mm)
hc (mm)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0
55.032
48.881
49.659
49.561
49.574
49.572
0
30.210
26.770
27.206
27.151
27.158
27.157
0.27646
0.19499
0.20427
0.20309
0.20324
0.20322
0.20323
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737
Table 4
Comparison of coefcient C with different rainfall increments
Parameter
Methods
65 mm-80 mm
50 mm-80 mm
Dhw (mm)
Present method
Approximate method
Experimental method
18.8
18.53
18.35
18.6
18.79
17.65
37.4
37.32
36.00
Dhs (mm)
Present method
Approximate method
Experimental method
13.7
13.43
11.50
13.4
13.63
13.75
27.1
27.06
25.25
Present method
Approximate method
Experimental method
Theoretical method
1.372
1.380
1.596
1.38
1.388
1.378
1.284
1.38
100
radial stress of the deck plate, r (MPa)
60
1.380
1.379
1.426
1.38
50
40
30
20
numerical results
10
experimental results
h0 = 50 mm
h0 = 65 mm
h0 = 80 mm
h0 = 50 mm
h0 = 65 mm
h0 = 80 mm
80
60
40
20
-20
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
500
1000
50
50
40
60
40
30
20
0
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2000
2500
3000
3500
Fig. 16. Radial stress of the deck plate under rainfall h0 50 mm.
10
1500
radius, r (mm)
radius, r (mm)
2500
3000
3500
radius, r (mm)
30
20
10
-10
3400
3500
3600
3700
3800
3900
4000
4100
radius, r (mm)
Fig. 15. Deections of the deck plate for the roofs with and without bulkheads
under rainfall h0 50 mm.
Fig. 17. Stress distributions of the radial beams under rainfall h0 50 mm.
The radial stress in the deck plate is shown in Fig. 15 with the
present numerical results and experimental results. Both the
numerical and experimental results indicate that there are
signicant stresses near the bulkhead at the edge of the deck
plate, as shown in Fig. 16. These signicant stresses, however, are
eliminated near the edge which is away from the bulkhead. The
comparison of the radial stresses of the deck plate for the roof
with and without bulkheads under h0 50 mm is also shown in
Fig. 16. These results demonstrate that the bulkhead has
signicant effects on the radial stress near the edge of the deck
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stress near the edge of the deck plate. Bending stress usually
appears near the connections of deck plate and pontoon, whereas
the membrane stress dominates the stress states at locations
away from the edge of the deck plate.
The proposed method provides an effective and practical 3-D
numerical solution to the design and analysis of oating roofs. The
present solution can be further applied to structural analysis of
oating roofs with more complicated components and load
conditions, and a detailed analysis in a local structure or
component of oating roofs can even be potentially conducted
with the present method.
80
numerical results
vertical stress
annular stress
60
experimental results
vertical stress
annular stress
40
20
-20
Acknowledgments
-40
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
height, H (mm)
Fig. 18. Stress of the inner rim under rainfall h0 50 mm.
plate, which was not considered in the other methods forementioned since, wherein the bulkhead was usually neglected.
Furthermore, at locations away from the edge of the deck plate,
the membrane stress dominates the stress states, and the stress
distributes relatively uniformly at these locations.
Figs. 17 and 18 demonstrate the stress distributions in typical
components of the pontoon under rainfall h0 50 mm. The stress
of the radial beams in the top and bottom plates of the pontoon is
illustrated in Fig. 17. The results indicate that the radial beams in
the pontoon are tensioned and there are signicant stresses near
the connections with the inner rim. Fig. 18 gives the vertical and
annular stress distributions of the inner rim of the pontoon. The
present numerical results are compared with the experimental
results, and good agreements are observed, which demonstrates
the present numerical method can simulate the structural
problems of the oating roof with reasonable and reliable results.
5. Conclusions
The LMM is proposed in this paper for analysis of oating roofs
under rainwater loading. According to the equilibrium analysis of
oating roofs in practical operation, the relationship between
loads and deections is derived, and two cases of the rainwater
distribution on the deck plate are considered. The analyses of
stress and deformation of oating roofs are developed with a
geometrically nonlinear FE simulation based on the LMM. The
loading magnitudes are modied with a series of iterative
computations until the computational results meet the given
accuracy requirements within the user-specied error tolerance in
the analysis process. Numerical examples demonstrate that the
proposed method is valid and reliable for analysis of oating roofs
based on 3-D model. The numerical results indicate that the deck
plate is usually subjected to larger deection under rainwater
loading and the bulkhead has signicant effects on the radial
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