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From:
http://www.air-worldwide.com/Publications/AIR-Currents/2010/A-More-Rigorous-Approach-to-Assessing-Catastrophe-Risk-for-Industrial-Facilities/
Website by AIR WORLDWIDE
On May 14, 2010 in an article entitled "A More Rigorous Approach to Assessing Catastrophe Risk for Industrial Facilities" Paolo Bazzurro wrote:
"Storage tanks are probably the most common components found in industrial facilities. Not all tanks are the same, however. They can have different aspect ratios (the ratio of height to diameter), different levels to which they are filled, different methods to anchor them, and so on, all of which affect their vulnerability. Large-diameter storage tanks (which have a relatively low aspect ratio), for example, tend to buckle at lower wind speeds than tanks with higher aspect ratios. Tanks with very high aspect ratios, however, also can fail—by being overturned or caused to slide before their walls ever begin to buckle; however, such tanks are typically anchored at the foundation.
"AIR engineers undertook a variety of engineering studies in developing damage functions for storage tanks. In one set of tests, structural analytical models of storage tanks were developed using computer engineering software. Wind pressure distributions (based on the published results of wind tunnel studies) were applied to the models incrementally, thus simulating increasing wind loads (Figure 5a). The loading-factor was raised until elastic buckling developed, indicating a local failure of the tank wall....These tests were repeated with the storage tanks modeled to hold three different levels of liquid (empty, half-full, and full)"
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