Experimental study on the wind-induced buckling of open-top storage tanks with wind girders via 3D-DIC technique

Large open-top storage tanks are susceptible to buckling failure under the combination of external and internal wind pressures. Therefore, wind girders are recommended to be installed on the tank wall to improve its buckling capacity. Most previous experiments on buckling of cylindrical shells typically measured the response at a certain point with a single displacement sensor, and the buckling modes are not readily available. In this study, a measurement technique based on the three-dimensional digital image correlation method is utilized to analyze the buckling behavior of several elastic tank models with aspect ratios of 0.5 and 0.2 in the boundary layer turbulence. The critical buckling pressure and instantaneous displacement field on the windward side of models with and without wind girders are presented and compared with the results of finite element analysis. In addition, the effects of wind girders and imperfections are further discussed. The results indicate that the deformation of the tank wall can change the wind pressure, making it more difficult to return to the pre-buckling state. The wind girders can significantly restrain the buckling deformation and increase the critical buckling load. However, as the wind girders become rigid, the strengthening effect becomes almost constant, and the stiffened tanks are more sensitive to initial geometric imperfections. Based on the cylindrical shell buckling theory and existing calculation methods, an empirical formula for the critical buckling wind pressure of open-top storage tanks with different numbers of wind girders in the boundary layer is proposed.