Buckling conditions and strengthening by CFRP composite of cylindrical steel water tanks under seismic load

In this paper, buckling conditions and retrofitting of cylindrical steel water storage tanks with different roof types and wall thicknesses were investigated by using finite element method. Four roof types of cylindrical steel tanks which are opentop, flat-closed, conical-closed and torispherical-closed and three wall thicknesses of 4, 6 and 8 mm were considered in FE modeling of cylindrical steel tanks. The roof shapes significantly affect load distribution on the tank shell under the seismic action. Composite FRP materials are widely used for winding thin-walled cylindrical steel structures. The retrofitting efficiency of cylindrical steel water tank is tested under the seismic loading with the externally bonded CFRP laminates. In retrofitting of cylindrical steel tank, the CFRP composite material coating method was used to improve of seismic performance of cylindrical steel tanks. ANSYS software was used to analyze the cylindrical steel tanks and maximum equivalent (von-Mises) and directional deformation were obtained. Equivalent (von-Mises) stresses significantly decreased due to the coating of the tank shell with FRP composite material. In thin-walled steel structures, excessive stress causes buckling and deformations. Therefore, retrofitting led to decrease in stress, reductions in directional and buckling deformation of the open-top, flat-closed, conicalclosed and torispherical-closed tanks.