Seismic Analysis and Design of Industrial Tanks, Pressure Vessels and Piping

Summary:

The research is conducted within the RFCS project INDUSE and it is aimed at developing design guidelines/recommendations for safeguarding structural integrity of industrial equipment steel structures, namely industrial tanks, pressure vessels and piping, under strong seismic action. The work combines structural seismic engineering concepts with mechanical engineering practice, considering the particularities of industrial systems and their support structures (shape and geometry, high internal pressure, interaction with liquid containment and the supporting structural system, material defects and damages that reduce significantly deformation capacity).

The final objective is the development of a complete set of design guidelines/recommendations, for the seismic analysis and design of industrial tanks, pressure vessels and piping, compatible with the Eurocode 8 (EN 1998) seismic design framework and, in particular, with the existing EN 1998-4 seismic provisions for liquid storage tanks. The guidelines will be novel and unique, incorporating modern aspects of earthquake-resistant design and are aimed at:

expanding EN 1998-4 provisions towards an integrated seismic design of liquid storage tanks and attached equipment, incorporating some special features and all possible failure modes (WP5)
extending the applicability of Eurocode 8 (EN 1998) concepts for the cases of industrial pressure vessels and attached equipment (WP6), and piping systems including their support systems (WP7).
A basic comparison will be performed between the currently available seismic design provisions in European and American standards (WP1), considering specific design examples; furthermore, an assessment of seismic damages in industrial facilities will be conducted.
Taking account the dynamic behaviour of each structural system, and its interactions with enclosed liquid and its flexible supports, seismic actions on those industrial systems will be determined (WP2). This will define appropriate loading ranges, towards better preparation of experiments.
The structural behaviour of key structural components will be investigated. Strong cyclic (static and pseudo-dymanic) loading test (WP3) will be conducted on critical components (e.g. nozzles, pipe connections and elbows).
Finally, numerical studies on these components will also be conducted, based on extensive FE analyses, covering a wide range of geometric, material and loading parameters (WP4).
To achieve this purpose, the following intermediate goals are targeted within the INDUSE project:

The INDUSE project consists of three major parts (phases). Phase I of the project consists of a comparison between existing methodologies for seismic design and collection/evaluation of available relevant test data, as well as the analysis of tanks, vessels and piping as structural systems. Phase II focuses on component behaviour, through experimental work, supported by nonlinear finite element simulations. Finally, Phase III refers to the development of the design guidelines/recommendations, which is the main objective of the project.

People:

Patricia Pappa

Maria Vathi

George E. Varelis

Daniel Vasilikis

Polynikis Vazouras

Kalliopi (Popy) Diamanti (EBETAM)

Spyros A. Karamanos

Nol Gresnigt (TU Delft)

Dimitris Valougeorgis

Relevant Publications:

In Referred Journals

Karamanos, S. A., Giakoumatos, E. and Gresnigt, A. M., “Nonlinear Response and Failure of Steel Elbows Under In-Plane Bending and Pressure.”, Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, ASME, Vol. 125, No. 4, pp. 393-402, November 2003.
Papaspyrou, S., Valougeorgis, D. and Karamanos, S. A., “Refined Solutions of Externally Induced Sloshing in Half-Full Spherical Containers.”, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, Vol. 129, No. 12, pp. 1369-1379, December 2003.
Papaspyrou, S., Valougeorgis, D. and Karamanos, S. A., “Sloshing effects in half-full horizontal cylindrical vessels under longitudinal excitation.”, Journal of Applied Mechanics, ASME, Vol. 71, No. 2, pp. 255-265, March 2004.
Papaspyrou, S., Karamanos, S. A. and Valougeorgis, D., “Response of Half Full Horizontal Cylinders Under Transverse Excitation.”, Journal of Fluids and Structures, Vol. 19, No. 7, pp. 985-1003, August 2004.
Karamanos, S. A., Patkas, L. A. and Platyrrachos, M. A., “Sloshing Effects on the Seismic Design of Horizontal-Cylindrical and Spherical Industrial Vessels.”, Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, ASME, Vol. 128, No. 3, pp. 328-340, August 2006.
Karamanos, S. A., Tsouvalas, D. and Gresnigt, A. M., “Ultimate Bending Capacity and Buckling of Pressurized 90 deg Steel Elbows.”, Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, ASME, Vol. 128, No. 3, pp. 348-356, August 2006 [Sam Y. Zamrik LiteratureAward 2006, American Society of Mechanical Engineering, Pressure Vessels & Piping Division].
Patkas, L. A. and Karamanos, S. A., “Variational Solutions of Liquid Sloshing in Horizontal-Cylindrical and Spherical Containers.”, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, Vol. 133, No. 6, pp. 641-655, June 2007.
Karamanos, S. A., Papaprokopiou, D., and Platyrrachos, M. A., “Finite Element Analysis of Externally-Induced Sloshing in Horizontal-Cylindrical and Axisymmetric Industrial Vessels.”, Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, ASME, Vol. 131, No. 5, Article Number: 051301, October 2009.
Varelis, G. E., Karamanos, S. A., and Gresnigt, A. M., “Steel Elbow Response Under Strong Cyclic Loading.”, Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, ASME, vol. 135, No.1, Article Number: 011207, February 2013.

In Conference Proceedings

Papaspyrou S., Valougeorgis D. and Karamanos, S. A., “Analytical Solutions of Sloshing Effects in Horizontal Cylindrical and Spherical Vessels”, ASME – Greek Section, 1st National Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering, Patras, Greece, September 2001.
Papaspyrou S., Valougeorgis D. and Karamanos, S. A., “Externally-Induced Sloshing in Horizontal Cylindrical Vessels with Energy Dissipation.”, 4th National Congress on Computational Mechanics, Patras, Greece, June 2002.
Karamanos, S. A., Papaspyrou S., and Valougeorgis D., “Sloshing Effects in Spherical Vessels and Their Supports”, Paper No. 474, 12th European Conference on Earthquake Engineering, London, UK, September 2002.
Papaspyrou S., Valougeorgis D. and Karamanos, S. A., "Semi-analytical sloshing solutions in half full spherical and horizontal cylindrical containers", 1st International Conference for Mathematics and Informatics for Industry, Thessaloniki, Greece, April 2003.
Papaspyrou S., Valougeorgis D. and Karamanos, S. A., "Longitudinal sloshing effects in half full horizontal cylindrical vessels", 2nd MIT Conference on Computational Mechanics, Boston, MA, USA, June 2003.
Karamanos, S. A., "Simplified Sloshing Analysis for the Seismic Design of Industrial Vessels.", Steel Tanks 2003, International Conference on Design, Inspection, Maintenance and Operation of Cylindrical Steel Tanks and Pipelines, pp. 122-129, Prague, Czech Rep., October 2003.
Papaspyrou S., Valougeorgis D. and Karamanos, S. A., "Mathematical modeling of sloshing in half-full deformable horizontal cylinders.", 7th HSTAM InternationalCongress on Mechanics, Vol. I, pp. 308-315, Chania, Greece, June 2004.
Karamanos, S. A., Tsouvalas, D. and Gresnigt, A. M., “Ultimate Capacity of Pressurized 90 Deg Elbows Under Bending.”, Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference, ASME, PVP2004-2608, PVP-Vol. 477, pp. 139-148, San Diego, CA, July 2004.
Karamanos, S. A., “Sloshing Effects on the Seismic Design of Horizontal-Cylindrical and Spherical Vessels.”, Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference, ASME, PVP2004-2912, PVP-Vol. 486-1, pp. 225-231, San Diego, CA, July 2004.
Patkas, L. A., Karamanos, S. A. and Platyrrachos, M. A., “Variational Solutions of Liquid Sloshing in Half-full Horizontal Cylinders.”, 5th GRACM International Congress on Computational Mechanics, Limassol, Cyprus, June 2005.
Platyrrachos, M., and Karamanos, S. A., “Finite Element Analysis of Sloshing in Horizontal-Cylindrical Industrial Vessels under Earthquake Loading.”, Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference, ASME, PVP2005-71499, Denver, CO, July 2005.
Patkas, L. A., Karamanos, S. A., and Platyrrachos, M., “Seismic Design in Horizontal-Cylindrical Industrial Vessels under Earthquake Loading.”, Fourth European Workshop on the Seismic Behavior of Irregular and Complex Structures, Thessaloniki, Greece, August 2005.
Patkas, L. A., and Karamanos S. A., "A Variational Solution of Sloshing in Spherical Industrial Vessels under Earthquake Loading.", Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference, ASME, PVP2006-ICPVT11-93511, Vancouver, Canada, July 2006.
Karamanos, S. A., “A refined mathematical model for externally-induced sloshing in half–full deformable horizontal cylinders.”, COMPDYN 2007 Conference, Rethymno, Greece, June 2007.
Karamanos, S. A., Papaprokopiou, D., and Patkas, L. A. “Variational Analysis of Sloshing in Spherical Industrial Vessels.”, COMPDYN 2007 Conference, Rethymno, Greece, June 2007.
Karamanos, S. A., “A refined mathematical model for externally-induced sloshing in half–full deformable horizontal cylinders.”, COMPDYN 2007 Conference, Rethymno, Greece, June 2007.
Karamanos, S. A., Papaprokopiou, D., and Patkas, L. A. “Variational Analysis of Sloshing in Spherical Industrial Vessels.”, COMPDYN 2007 Conference, Rethymno, Greece, June 2007.
Papaprokopiou, D., and Karamanos, S. A., “Finite Element Analysis of Earthquake-Induced Sloshing in Axisymmetric Vessels.”, Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference, ASME, PVP2008-61029, Chicago, IL, July 2008.
Gresnigt, A. M., and Karamanos, S. A., “Local Buckling Strength and Deformation Capacity of Pipes.”, Nineteenth International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, ISOPE09, Osaka, Japan, June 2009.
Varelis, G. E., Pappa, P. and Karamanos, S. A., “Simulation of Industrial Elbow Response Under Strong Cyclic Loading.”, COMPDYN 2011 Conference, Corfu, Greece, May 2011.
Vasilikis, D., Vazouras, P., Pappa, P., and Karamanos, S. A., “On the Seismic Behaviour and Design of Liquid Storage Tanks”, COMPDYN 2011 Conference, Corfu, Greece, May 2011.
Diamanti K., Doukas I., and Karamanos, S. A., “Seismic Analysis and Design of Industrial Pressure Vessels.”, COMPDYN 2011 Conference, Corfu, Greece, May 2011.
Varelis, G. E., and Karamanos, S. A., “J2 Bounding-Surface Plasticity Models for Simulation of Strong Cyclic Loading of Structural Steel Components.”, 7th GRACM International Congress on Computational Mechanics, Athens, Greece, June 2011.
Varelis, G. E., Pappa, P. and Karamanos, S. A., “Finite Element Analysis of Industrial Steel Elbows Under Strong Cyclic Loading.”, Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference, ASME, PVP2011, Baltimore, Maryland, July 2011.
Varelis, G. E., Gresnigt, A. M., and Karamanos, S. A., “Steel Elbow Response Under Strong Cyclic Loading.”, 22nd International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference, ISOPE12, Rhodos, Greece, June 2012
Vathi, M., and Karamanos, S.A. (2012). "Effects of Base Uplifting on the Seismic Response of Unanchored Liquid Storage Tanks", ASME 2012 Pressure Vessels & Piping Division Conference, PVP2012, July 15-19, 2012, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA.
Varelis, G. E., Gresnigt, A. M., and Karamanos, S. A., “Steel Elbow Response Under Strong Cyclic Loading.” Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference, ASME, PVP2012-78346, Toronto, Canada, July 2012
Varelis, G. E., Papatheocharis, T., Perdikaris P.C. and Karamanos, S. A., “Structural Performance of High-Strength Steel Welded Joints Under Out-of-Plane Extreme Loading Conditions - Experimental And Numerical Investigation.”, 14th International Symposium on Tubular Structures (ISTS 14), Paper No. 98, London, UK, September 2012
Vathi, M., and Karamanos, S.A. (2013). "Seismic Response of Unanchored Liquid Storage Tanks", ASME 2013 Pressure Vessels & Piping Division Conference, PVP2013, July 14-18, 2013, Paris, France.
Varelis, G.E., Ferino J., Karamanos, S.A., Lucci A., Demofonti G., (2013). “Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Pressurized Pipe Elbows under Strong Cyclic Loading Conditions”, ASME 2013 Pressure Vessels & Piping Division Conference PVP2013, July 14-18, 2013, Paris, France.
Pappa P., Varelis, G.E., Karamanos, S.A., Gresnigt A. M., (2013). “Low cycle fatigue tests and simulations on steel elbows”, ASME 2013 Pressure Vessels & Piping Division Conference PVP2013, July 14-18, 2013, Paris, France.
Papatheocharis Th., Diamanti K., Varelis, G.E., Perdikaris P. C., Karamanos S.A., (2013). “Experimental and numerical investigation of pipe Tee junctions under strong cyclic loading”, ASME 2013 Pressure Vessels & Piping Division Conference PVP2013, July 14-18, 2013, Paris, France.