The effect of safety margin factor on ensuring the safety of oil tanks

UDK: 622.692.23.07

DOI: 10.24887/0028-2448-2026-2-83-89

Key words: oil tanks, reliability, safety, safety margin factor

Authors: N.N. Gorban (CPC-R JSC, RF, Moscow); G.G. Vasiliev (Gubkin University, RF, Moscow); I.A. Leonovich (Gubkin University, RF, Moscow); A.P. Salnikov (Gubkin University, RF, Moscow); A.A. Bakeeva (Gubkin University, RF, Moscow)

The article studies the impact of regulatory safety margin factors on the design solutions and safety of vertical cylindrical steel oil tanks. It is demonstrated that the traditional design approach, based on a system of partial safety factors (for material, load, responsibility, and working conditions) is excessively conservative. This results in a significant and non-uniform strength margin along the wall’s height: while the lower shell course utilizes about 59 % of the material's yield strength, the upper courses are stressed at only 8-20 %, indicating non-optimal metal consumption. Using the example of calculation for RVS-10 000 and RVS-20 000 oil tanks according to State Standard GOST 31385-2023 without safety factors, it is shown that the stability condition is more critical than the strength condition. To ensure stability when calculating without factors, the shell course thicknesses should be increased almost to the values determined by the regulatory strength calculation. It is noted that there is an existing industry practice of using even more inflated thicknesses, which lacks sufficient justification and increases material intensity and cost. The conclusion is made about the need for more flexible and optimized calculation methods to reduce excessive metal consumption while maintaining the required safety level. The possibility of optimizing regulatory requirements for tank design is substaniated. The research results can be used to update standards in order to reduce the material intensity of structures without compromising their reliability and safety.

References

1. Russian Federal Law No. 384-FZ “Technical regulations on the safety of buildings and facilities” of December 30th, 2009. – http://government.ru/docs/all/99400/

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