Probabilistic Seismic Safety Evaluation of Precode Cylindrical Oil Tanks

Abstract

Cylindrical steel liquid storage tanks are important components of many process industries. They are usually used to store toxic, flammable, and hazardous liquids. Hence damage to liquid storage tanks may cause serious direct and indirect impacts. Many of the existing tanks in old industrial plants are precode tanks or were designed based on early editions of seismic codes. Meanwhile, the performance of old liquid storage tanks during the past earthquake revealed that they are noticeably vulnerable. In this paper, analytical and empirical probabilistic seismic safety analysis (PSSA) of precode tanks were performed. Fragility curves were developed in terms of the height-to-diameter ratio (