JIANG ET AL.

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FIGURE 6 Stress distributions along circular

wall height (verification cases)

FIGURE 7 Finite-element models of fuel storage tank concepts. (a) Square-circular double-hull; (b) Double-circular wall; (c) Circular single-hull with
floaters

stiffeners in the double-circular wall structure. It is seen that
the full fuel level is the most critical in terms of stress mag-
nitudes. When the tank is subjected to hydrostatic pressures
induced by the seawater and in-fill fuel, the outer wall is in
compression while the inner wall is in tension in both the
circumferential and vertical directions. Different from the
square-circular double-hull structure, hoop tension/compres-
sion effects are more critical than the bending effects in the
double-circular wall structure, which may be attributed to
the geometric layout of the double-hull walls
Figure 14a,b shows the basic units of the two double-hull
structures under consideration. Inner and outer walls in the
22 JIANG ET AL.

FIGURE 8 Hydrostatic pressures acting on

floating tank

TABLE 2 Draft values corresponding to different fuel levels

Seawater draft values (m)

In-fill Square-circular Double-circular Single-hull
Case fuel level (m) double-hull wall with floaters
Empty 0 5.77 4.77 5.22
25% 4.13 7.82 6.82 7.64
50% 8.25 9.86 8.87 10.1
75% 12.3 11.9 10.9 12.5
Full 16.5 14.0 13.0 14.9

double circular-wall structure act as curved shells when sub-

jected to hydrostatic pressures, while those walls in the
square-circular structure behave similarly as planar plates
between the side and the corner ribs. Under this situation,
the circumferential stress signs are the same for both the out-
side and inner side of the curved walls between adjacent
stiffeners in double circular-wall structure. It is observed
from the stress distribution of the outer wall that the circum-
ferential stresses are in compression and vertical tensile
stress values are lower than the allowable stress limits except
at the base of the tank wall. Therefore, it is possible to avoid
P.T. in the outer wall with tapering of the wall, which has
the potential of significantly reducing material and construc-
tion costs. In terms of the inner wall, two-directional P.T. are
still necessary.

4.3 | Adjustments to double-hull structures

For double-hull structures, the existence of a void results in
the both outer and inner walls resisting the hydrostatic pres-
sures on their own, and this calls for an extensive amount of
prestressing steels to counteract the tensile stresses gener-
ated. In order to transfer the seawater pressure acting on the
outer wall to the inner wall that resists the fuel pressure, two
modified concepts were proposed, using (a) water ballasting
and (b) in-fill EPS foam, as shown in Figures 15 and 16. In
terms of the first option, different levels of ballasting water
are explored in FE analyses and the half-ballast case will be
presented herein as an example.
As for the second option, a commercial product, Foam-
Control Geofoam EPS29, is utilized to fill in the void
between the inner and outer tank wall.28 According to the
product specifications provided by the company, EPS foam
FIGURE 9 Circumferential/tangential stress nephogram of circular/
rectangular walls. (a) Circular Wall; (b) Rectangular Wall
is considered to perform in the elastic range of behavior
because the deformation of concrete tank walls is relatively
small, and its modulus of elasticity is taken as 7.5 MPa,
which is much lower than the concrete value. Note that only
two extreme in-fill fuel levels (empty and full) will be pre-
sented herein to evaluate the effectiveness of these two alter-
native design concepts.
4.3.1 | Modified square-circular double-hull structure
Figures 17 and 18 depict the stress distribution along the wall
height of the original and modified square-circular double-hull
tanks. The results for the empty and the full fuel cases are
JIANG ET AL.
FIGURE 10 Stress distribution along inner
circular wall height (square-circular double-hull
structure)
FIGURE 11 Stress distribution along outer
rectangular wall height (square-circular double-
hull structure)
shown with red and blue lines, respectively. Dashed and center
lines represent the stress distributions when half ballasting
water and EPS foam is used as infill in the void, respectively.
Compared to the original data (solid line), it is seen that water
ballasting is not effective in reducing the stresses although the
hydrostatic pressure can be transferred to a certain extent.
Especially for the outer rectangular wall, the tangential stress
magnitude increase by around 20% as compared to the base
concept. The existence of ballasting water increases the
23
self-weight as well as the draft, resulting in a higher hydro-
static pressure being applied on the outer wall.
As for the in-fill EPS foam, there are little effects on the
self-weight and the draft values due to its low density. It is
however evident that the maximum tensile stress values reduce
by approximately 40% compared to the base concept, which
can significantly decrease the amount of prestressing steels
needed. Although the rectangular and circular walls start to
work in tandem to resist the outer and inner hydrostatic
24
pressures, the EPS foam is not stiff enough to successfully
transfer the load significantly. Under such circumstances, two-
directional prestressing steels are still necessary in the design,
which is expected to result in higher construction costs.
In short, the results of the analysis indicate that the
introduction of in-fill EPS foam is more effective in reduc-
ing the stresses induced by hydrostatic pressures as
JIANG ET AL.
FIGURE 12 Stress distribution along inner
circular wall height (double-circular wall
structure)
FIGURE 13 Stress distribution along outer
circular wall height (double-circular wall
structure)
compared to the water ballasting concept. However, the
ideal situation in which the hydrostatic pressures acting on
both sides of the tank wall are canceled out or balanced is
not achieved. Thus, prestressing steels and correspondingly
more complicated construction procedures are required if
the square-circular double-hull floating fuel storage tank
concept is adopted.