Buckling Behavior of Nose Cone Type Steel Tanks Including Horizontal Imperfection

Cylindrical shells have long been used as storage tanks in small or large sizes to store a variety of materials such as petroleum and derivatives. The radius to thickness ratios of these shells are classified as 1000 and 2000 according to which designers and international codes are attracted to the buckling due to their collapse in buckling. Considerable research has been conducted on cylindrical reservoirs under the influence of a hydrostatic force or an internal vacuum. Due to the low wall thickness of the shell structures, it is possible to cause any deformation and disturbance on the wall surfaces. Due to a variety of errors during construction or assembly, the designed tanks are not ideally constructed and have some geometric error. Horizontal imperfection caused by continuous welding on the steel sheet’s edge to form the nose cone is the main concern of this work. The present paper attempts to discuss seven laboratory specimens under uniformed hydrostatic pressure with the 4t, 6t, 8t, 10t, 14t and 24t depths. The results revealed that there is a descent agreement between the results of the experiments conducted here and international codes and theories concerning with initial and overall buckling and collapse.