Link to Index Page

buckled stainless steel wine tanks

This slide and the next three slides show buckled stainless steel wine tanks (photographs by J. Skogh). These thin stainless steel wine tanks buckled in an earthquake near Livermore, California at the Wente Brothers winery in 1979.

Note that some of the tanks buckled more or less axisymmetrically (called "elephant foot" buckling) whereas others buckled non-axisymmetrically.

Buckling near the base of the tanks is caused primarily by axial compression (caused by reaction to the overturning moment generated by the horizontal component of ground motion during the earthquake) combined with hoop tension from the hydrostatic pressure of the fluid in the tank. Therefore, the buckles are elongated in the circumferential direction. They occur near the bottom of the tank because the axial compression is greatest there.

Page 11 / 67