Proceedings of the ASME 2011 Pressure Vessels & Piping Division Conference

PVP2011
July 17-21, 2011, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Proceedings of the ASME 2011 Pressure Vessels & Piping Division Conference
PVP2011
July 17-21, 2011, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

PVP2011-57457
PVP2011-57457
AXISYMMETRIC FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS FOR FLOATING ROOFS OF
ABOVEGROUND STORAGE TANKS UNDER ACCUMULATED RAIN WATER
CONDITION
Shoichi Yoshida
Yokohama National University
Yokohama, Japan

ABSTRACT
The floating roofs are used in large aboveground storage
tanks to prevent evaporation of the content. The single-deck
floating roof, which is considered herein, consists of a thin
circular plate called a deck attached to a buoyant ring of boxshaped cross section called a pontoon. Under the accumulated
rain water condition, the deck is deflected largely, and both its
edge part and the pontoon are compressed circumferentially.
Since the load condition due to the rain water depends on the
deflected deck shape, it is difficult to find the unique
equilibrium condition. This paper describes the deformation
analysis for the single-deck floating roofs under the
accumulated rain water condition using the geometrically
nonlinear axisymmetric shell finite element method. The load
incremental method, in which the equivalent nodal forces due
to the rain water converges to coincide with the rain water load
derived from both the current rain water volume and the
deflected deck shape, is used.
INTRODUCTION
The floating roofs are used in large aboveground storage
tanks to prevent evaporation of the content. They are widely
used in petrochemical and oil refinery industries to store
primarily crude oil and naphtha. One type of floating roofs is
the single-deck floating roof which consists of a thin circular
plate called a deck attached to a buoyant ring of box-shaped
cross section called a pontoon. The single-deck floating roof
is considered herein.
The floating roofs are usually designed by API Standard 650,
Appendix C [1]. According to this standard, the floating roof
shall have sufficient buoyancy to remain afloat under 250
mm(10 inches) of rainfall with primary drains inoperative.
Under the accumulated rain water condition, both the rain
water load and the buoyancy act on the floating roof. If the
rainfall becomes large, the deck center deflects largely, and the

pontoon is pulled inward and compressed circumferentially in

the single-deck floating roof. The geometrically nonlinear
analysis is required in the strength and deformation evaluation
of the floating roof. Since the load condition due to the rain
water depends on the deflected deck shape, it is difficult to find
the unique equilibrium condition. The rain water load in the
equilibrium equation should coincide with that derived from
the deflected deck shape. Because of the above reason, the
general purpose computer codes are hard to apply to this
problem.
The author had reported the deformation analysis of the
single-deck floating roof under accumulated rain water load
using the axisymmetric shell finite element method[2]. In this
analysis, the load incremental method in which the equivalent
nodal force increment was modified at each incremental step
due to the deflected deck shape was used. After that, the
author reported the bifurcation buckling of the pontoon[3] and
the deformation of the single-deck floating roof with center
pontoon[4] using this method.
In the load incremental method[2], the rain water load was
obtained from the rain water volume of current step using the
deflected deck shape of previous step. This load differs from
the rain water load using the deflected deck shape of current
step. Therefore, this method was restricted to apply to the
incremental method with very small load.
This paper describes the deformation analysis of the singledeck floating roof under accumulated rain water condition.
The geometrically nonlinear axisymmetric shell finite element
method is carried out using the load increment method which is
improved on the previous method. In the improved method,
the equivalent nodal forces due to the rain water converges to
coincide with the rain water load derived from the deflected
deck shape of current step.

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NOMENCLATURE
D
Tank Diameter
dr
Radial displacement
Vertical displacement
dz
Vertical displacement of deck center
dz0
{d}
Displacement vector
Displacement vector of stage n
{dn}
{dn,i} Displacement vector of stage n, iteration i
E
Youngs modulus
{Fn,i} Equivalent nodal force vector of stage n, iteration i
g
Acceleration of gravity
Rainfall of stage n
hn
Rain water head of stage n, iteration i
Hn,i
[K(L)n,i] Small displacement stiffness matrix
[K()n,i] Initial stress stiffness matrix
L
Element length
Pontoon width
Lp
Meridional bending moment
Ms
Circumferential bending moment
M
Meridional membrane force
Ns
Circumferential membrane force
N
Shape function matrix of stage n, iteration i
[Nn,i]
Deck radius
RD
{Rn,i} Residual load vector of stage n, iteration i
(r,,z) Cylindrical coordinate
s
Elemental coordinate
t
Shell thickness
u
Tangential displacement of shell element
{u}
Displacement vector in elemental coordinate
Rainfall volume of stage n
Vn
w
Normal displacement of shell element

Rotational angle of shell element

Meridional normal strain
s
Circumferential normal strain

{dn} Displacement increment vector of stage n

{dn,i} Displacement increment vector of stage n, iteration i
{Fn,i} Equivalent nodal force increment vector
{fn,i} Elemental equivalent nodal force increment vector
Rainfall increment of stage n
hn
[]
Coordinate transformation matrix
Coordinate transformation matrix of stage n, iteration i
[n,i]

Poissons ratio
Liquid density
L
Rain water density
r
Inclination angle of shell element

Meridional bending stress

bs
Circumferential bending stress
b
Meridional membrane stress
ms
Circumferential membrane stress
m
Meridional change of curvature
s
Circumferential change of curvature

Increment

SINGLE-DECK FLOATING ROOF

The single-deck floating roof is made of mild steel, and its
members are jointed together by the welding. The thin
circular plate called a deck attaches to a buoyant ring of boxshaped cross section called a pontoon, as shown in Fig.1. The
pontoon consists of the inner rim, the outer rim, the pontoon
roof and the pontoon bottom. Both the pontoon roof and the
pontoon bottom have the range between 4.5 mm to 6 mm in
thickness, and both the inner rim and the outer rim are about 12
mm. The deck is about 4.5 mm (3/16 inch) in thickness
regardless of the tank diameter. The pontoon is usually a wide
and shallow trapezoidal shape. The width of pontoon which
equals to the length between the inner rim and the outer rim is
several meters in large tank. It is divided into a number of
compartments in the pontoon by the radially arranged plates
called a bulkhead. Each compartment has leakproof. API
Standard 650 Appendix C[1] gives the minimum requirement
for the floating roof design.
Pontoon

Detail of pontoon
Deck

Pontoon roof plate

Outer rim

Bulkhead
Pontoon
Seal

Deck

Deck

Bottom

Shell

Inner rim

Pontoon bottom plate

Fig.1 Single-deck floating roof

The rain water on the floating roof usually flows through an
inside pipe, and is drained outside the tank. API Standard 650
Appendix C[1] requires the floating roof to have sufficient
buoyancy to remain afloat under 250 mm(10 inches) of rainfall
with primary drains inoperative. However, some sinking
failures are experienced.
The deck center deflects largely in the single-deck floating
roof under accumulated rain water condition as shown in Fig.2.
Then, the pontoon is pulled inward and both the deck edge and
the pontoon are compressed circumferentially. The rain water
load in the equilibrium equation should coincident with that
obtained from the deflected deck shape in the analysis.
With regard to the deformation of the single-deck floating
roof under rain water load, Mitchell[5] proposed the nonlinear
equilibrium equation of the deck plate as an elastic circular
plate with a ring attached to the perimeter of the plate.
Epstein, et.el.[6] introduced the initial condition to solve the
Mitchell's differential equation effectively and applied it to the
pontoon design[7]. Umeki, et.al.[8] proposed to solve the
Mitchell's differential equation by the Milne method though
Epstein, et al.[6] solved it by the Runge-Kutta method.

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In the axisymmetric shell finite element analysis, Uchiyama

et.al.[9] treated the rain load as a nonlinear spring. The author
reported the load incremental method in which the equivalent
nodal force increment was modified at each incremental step
due to the deflected deck shape[2] and analyzed the bifurcation
buckling of the pontoon[3] and the deformation of the singledeck floating roof with center pontoon[4]. Sun, et.al.[10]
proposed the load-modifying method in the three-dimensional
shell FEA.
Rain water

Pontoon

Deck

Seal

Fig.2 Deformation of single-deck floating roof

ANALYSIS
Axisymmetric Shell Finite Element
The axisymmetric shell finite element used in this analysis is
a conical frustum element as shown in Fig.3. In this element,
the tangential displacement u is assumed to be linear function
and the normal displacement w to be cubic function with
respect to the elemental coordinate s.

i
r

=dw/ds
dr

u
j

dz

z
Fig.3 Axisymmetric shell finite element
The strain-displacement relation based on the KirchhoffLoves assumption is given by the Novozhilovs equation as
follows[11]:
du 1 dw 2
+

ds 2 ds
s
1 (w cos + u sin )

r
(1)
=

d
w
s

ds

sin dw

r ds

where i, i(i=s,) express the strain and the change of

curvature. The elastic stress-strain relation based on the
Hookes law is given by:
0
0
1

Ns
1
0
0 s
N

2
2
Et

t
t
(2)
0

=
2 0

M
1

12
12
s
s

t2
t 2
M

0 0

12

12

where E, and t are Youngs modulus, Poissions ratio and

thickness. Ni, Mi(i=s,) express the membrane force and the
bending moment.
The relation of the displacements between the global
coordinate and the elemental coordinate is defined as follows:
u cos sin 0d z


(3)
w = sin cos 0dr
0

0 1

where di(i=r,z) is the i-direction displacement in global
coordinate. Eq.(3) can be simply written as follows:
{u} = [ ]{d }
(4)
where {u}, [] and {d} are the displacement vector in elemental
coordinate, the coordinate transformation matrix and the
displacement vector in global coordinate.
Deformation Analysis
The rain water volume Vn of the stage n is given by:
D 2
(5)
Vn = Vn 1 +
hn
4
where D and hn are the tank diameter and the rainfall
increment of stage n. The rain is assumed to fall on full
surface of the tank uniformly and to accumulate on the deck
only.
The rain water load in the equilibrium equation should
coincide with that derived from the deflected deck shape at
each incremental step. This procedure requires the iteration
process. The displacement vector {dn,i} of iteration i in stage
n is given as follows:

{d n ,i } = {d n1 } + {d n ,1 } + {d n ,2 } + L + {d n ,i }

(6)

where {dn-1}and {dn,i} are the converged displacement vector

in the stage n-1 and the displacement incremental vector of the
iteration i in the stage n. When the displacement in the stage
n converges at the iteration imax, the converged displacement
incremental vector {dn} in this stage is expressed by:
(7)
{d n } = {d n ,1 } + {d n ,2 } + L + d n ,i

max

The displacement vector {dn} in the stage n can be expressed

by the following equation:

{d n } = {d n1} + {d n }

(8)

The vector {dn} can be also expressed by:

{d n } = d n ,i

max

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The updated Lagrangian formulation is used for the

geometrically nonlinear analysis in this paper. The virtual
work principle gives the following nonlinear finite element
equation of the iteration i in the stage n:

([K

( L ) n ,i

]+ [K

]){d } = {F }+ {R }

( ) n ,i

n ,i

n ,i

(10)

n ,i

where [K(L)n,i], [K()n,i], {Fn,i} and {Rn,i} are the small

displacement stiffness matrix, the initial stress stiffness matrix,
the equivalent load incremental vector and the residual load
vector, respectively. These refer the displacement {dn,i-1} of a
previous iteration in a current stage.

Fig.5 shows the calculation flow in the FEA. There are two
nested iteration loops at each incremental step. In inner loop,
the nonlinear finite element equation (10) is solved using the
Newton-Raphson method. In outer loop, the convergence of
the rain water load is handled. If it converges, the equivalent
nodal force increment vector {Fn,i} becomes zero and the
following relation can be obtained:
{d n ,i } = {d n ,i 1}
(13)
In the previous report[2], the outer iteration loop in Fig.5 was
not carried out.
Start of load incremental stage n

Rain Water Load

The rain water head Hn,i of the iteration i in the stage n is
calculated from the rain water volume Vn in the current stage n
and the deck deformation shape {dn,i-1} of the previous iteration
i-1. Hn,i is the function of the radial coordinate r. The
equivalent nodal force vector {Fn,i} of the iteration i in the
stage n is derived from Hn,i. The equivalent nodal force
increment vector {Fn,i} is defined as a difference of the
equivalent nodal force vector of iteration i and iteration i-1 as
follows:

{Fn ,i } = {Fn ,i } {Fn ,i 1 }

Rain water volum V n =V n-1 +V n

Start of iteration for deformation i = 1

Caluculation of equivalent nodal load vector

due to rain water {F n,i }
Caluculation of incremental equivalent nodal
load vector {F n,i } = {F n,i } - {F n,i-1 }

(11)

Newton-Raphson iteration

Referring to Fig. 4 and Eq.(11), the elemental nodal force

increment vector {fn,i} is given by the following equation:

Solution of FEM Equation(10)

{ f n ,i } = 2 r g [n ,i ]T [N n ,i ]T H n ,i r ds

(12)

[n ,i 1 ]

[N ]

n ,i 1

No

H n ,i 1 r ds

where r, g and L are the rain water density, the acceleration of

gravity and the element length, respectively. [n,i] and [Nn,i]
are the coordinate transformation matrix and the shape function
matrix of the iteration i in the stage n. The overall nodal force
increment vector {Fn,i} can be obtained by the superposition
of the elemental {fn,i}.
Buoyancy acts on both the deck plate and the pontoon
bottom plate where contact to the liquid. The buoyancy is
modeled by the vertical spring element in this FEA as shown in
Fig.4. The spring constant per unit area is Lg where L is the
liquid density.

Oil surface
Stage n

Hn,i-1 Hn,i

: iteration i-1
: iteration i

Fig.4 Rain water load

Residual load {R n,i } 0

Yes

No
i =i +1

Displacement {d n,i }{d n,i-1 }

Yes
End of stage n

Fig.5 Calculation flow in stage n

NUMERIAL EXAMPLE
The deformation analysis under accumulated rain water
condition is carried out for the single-deck floating roof as
shown in Fig.6 and Table 1. The tank diameter D is 80 m, the
deck radius RD is 34.8 m and the pontoon width LP is 5 m.
The floating roof is made of mild steel. The liquid density is
700, 800, 900, 1000 and 1100 kg/m3. The dead weight of the
floating roof is neglected in the analysis. Table 1 also shows
the mesh divisions and the total number of nodal points and
elements are 2069 and 2069, respectively. Table 2 shows the
rainfall increment hn at each incremental step. The rainfall
of 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 mm corresponds to the step
number of 240, 290, 340, 390, 440 and 490, respectively. The

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rainfall increment should be small in order to converge in the

outer loop in Fig.5.
The rain water load in the finite element equation(10) should
coincide with that derived from the deflected deck shape and
this is the outer loop in Fig.5. The following equation is the
convergence condition:

d z ,n ,i d z ,n ,i 1
0.0001
d z ,n ,i

(14)

where dz,n,i is the vertical displacement of iteration i in step n.

The analysis in the incremental step can be converged when the
Eq.(14) is satisfied in all nodal points. If the number of
iteration exceeds 1000, the analytical process is forced to go
forward to next step and the result is not correct at this stage.
However, the result considered to be correct at the following
step with convergence.

Liquid density 700 kg/m

0
Seal

D
B

-200

E
C
Lp = 5000

RD = 34800
D/240000
Sidewall

Fig.6

Deck deformation (mm)

r
300

-400
-600
50 mm
100 mm
150 mm
200 mm
250 mm
300 mm

-1000
-1200

Table 1 Single-deck floating roof dimensions

-1400

Thickness(mm) Mesh division

Deck (Point AB)
4.5
1296
12
38
Inner rim (Point BD)
12
67
Outer rim (Point CE)
6
334
Pontoon roof (Point DE)
6
334
Pontoon bottom ( Point BC)
80,000 mm
Tank diameter D
Deck radius R D
34,800 mm
Pontoon width L p
5,000 mm
450 mm
Inner rim height
800 mm
Outer rim height
300 mm
Lower edge difference of rim
Rain water density r
1000 kg/m3
Liquid density L
700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100 kg/m3
200 GPa
Young's modulus E
0.3
Poison's ratio

Rainfall

-800

Analytical model of single-deck floating roof in AST

0.0

0.2

0.4
0.6
Radius ratio r/R D

0.8

1.0

Fig.7 Deck deformation in liquid density 700 kg/m3

3

Liquid density 1100 kg/m

100
0
Deck deformation (mm)

Deck
450

Pontoon

800

(mm)

NUMERIAL RESULTS
Deck Deformation
Fig.7 and Fig.8 show the deck deformation in the liquid
density L= 700 kg/m3 and 1,100 kg/m3, respectively. In these
figures, the horizontal line of the same color as the deformation
line indicates the rain water surface. The horizontal line of
deflection equals to zero shows the liquid surface.
In the Fig.7 of L= 700 kg/m3, the deck center deflects
largely and the rain water surface is bellow the liquid surface.
The rain water accumulates on the center part of deck and do
not accumulate on the edge part. In the Fig.8 of L= 1,100
kg/m3, the rain water surface is above the liquid surface. The
deck deflects almost horizontal except for the edge part. The
deflection of the deck center dzo is 1,105 mm in L= 700 kg/m3
and the rainfall hn(n=440)= 250 mm.

Table 2 Rainfall increment

Rainfall increment h n
Rainfall
0 mm 10 mm
0.1 mm
0.2 mm
10 mm 30 mm
0.5 mm
30 mm 50 mm
1 mm
50 mm 300 mm

-100
-200
-300
-400

Rainfall
50 mm
150 mm
250 mm

-500
-600
0.0

0.2

0.4
0.6
Radius ratio r/R D

100 mm
200 mm
300 mm

0.8

1.0

Fig.8 Deck deformation in liquid density 1100 kg/m3

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Fig.9 shows the deck deformation in the rainfall hn(n=440)=

250 mm and the liquid density L=700, 800, 900, 1000, 1100
kg/m3. According to this figure, the deck deformation
decreases and becomes horizontal with increasing L.
Rainfall 250 mm

Deck deformation (mm)

0
-200
-400
-600

Liquid density(kg/m )

-800

700
800
900
1000
1100

-1000
-1200
0.0

0.2

0.4
0.6
Radius ratio r/R D

0.8

Rainfall
250 mm

75

Fig.9 Deck deformation at rainfall 250 mm

Fig.10 shows the relation between the deflection of the deck
center dzo and the rainfall hn in the liquid density L=700, 800,
900, 1000, 1100 kg/m3. dzo is illustrated as positive in Fig.10
though it is negative in the analysis. The relation becomes
linear when L is large such as 1,000 and 1,100 kg/m3

150 mm

50

50 mm

25
0
-25
-50

Meridional stress
ms
Circumferential stress m

-75

1400

-100

Liquid density (kg/m )

1200

700
900
1100

1000

0.0

800
1000

0.2

0.4
0.6
Radius ratio r/R D

0.8

1.0

Fig.11 Membrane stress of deck in liquid density 700 kg/m3

800

Liquid density 1100 kg/m

10

600

Rainfall 250 mm

400
200
0
0

50

100
150
200
Rainfall (mm)

250

300

Membrane stress (MPa)

Deflection dz0 (mm)

Liquid density 700 kg/m

100

1.0
Membrane stress (MPa)

200

Ns
N
(15)
m =
,
t
t
where ms and m are the meridional membrane stress and the
circumferential membrane stress, respectively. The bending
stresses are calculated from the bending moment as follows:
6M
6M
(16)
bs = 2 s ,
b = 2
t
t
where bs and b are the meridional bending stress and the
circumferential bending stress, respectively.
The membrane stresses of the deck in the liquid density L=
700 kg/m3 and 1100 kg/m3 are shown in Fig.11 and Fig.12,
respectively. The meridional, that is radial, membrane stress
ms is tensile in all part of the deck and it approaches to zero at
the edge, that is r/RD=1. The circumferential membrane stress
m is tensile in center part of the deck and it becomes
compressive in the edge part. It is found that small liquid
density produces high membrane stresses in the deck.

ms =

Fig.10 Deflection of deck center

150 mm

50 mm

-5
-10
-15
Meridional stress ms
Circumferential stress m

-20

Deck Stress
In the axisymmetric shell element, the membrane stresses are
calculated from the membrane force as follows:

-25
0.0

0.2

0.4
0.6
Radius ratio r/R D

0.8

1.0

Fig.12 Membrane stress of deck in liquid density 1100 kg/m3

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Rainfall 250 mm, Liquid density 1100 kg/m

20
0
Bending Stress (MPa).

step n=1, the number of iteration exceeds 1,000 and it does not
converge. imax is 212 in n=2. In the incremental stage,
several another iterations of the inner loop in Fig.5 is carried
out.

1400
3

Liquid density 700 kg/m

1200
Deflection dz0 (mm)

The bending stresses of the deck in the liquid density

L=1100 kg/m3 and the rainfall hn=250 mm are shown in
Fig.13. The bending stresses in the radial range r/RD from 0.8
to 1.0 are illustrated in this figure and those less than 0.8 are
almost zero. The bending stress means positive when the
upper surface of the deck is tensile. Both the radial bending
stress bs and the circumferential bending stress b rapidly
increase with approaching to the edge and bs is larger than b
near the edge. In the elastic analysis, the bending stress at the
edge becomes larger if the mesh division is made fine.

-20

Iteration
No iteration

1000
800
600
400
200

-40

-60

50

Meridional stress bs

-80

Circumferential stress b

100
150
200
Rainfall (mm)

250

300

Fig.14 Comparison of deflection of deck center

-100
-120
0.80

0.85

0.90
0.95
Radius ratio r/R D

1.00

Liquid density 700 kg/m

0
3

EFFECT OF ITERATION
The effect of iteration of the outer loop in Fig.5 is
investigated.
This iteration is for the convergence of
coincidence of the rain water load in the finite element
equation(10) with that derived from the deflected deck shape.
The relations between the vertical displacement of the deck
center dz0 and the rainfall both with and without iteration are
shown in Fig.14. Though both results are almost identical in
the rainfall greater than 100 mm, they are different in the
rainfall less than 100 mm. The displacement dzo in the
rainfall=250 mm is 1,105 mm with iteration and 1,081 mm
without iteration.
Fig.15 shows the deck deflection in the rainfall 20 mm and
50 mm both with and without iteration. The deflection at the
deck center with iteration is large. On the other hand, the
deflection at the middle part of the deck without iteration is
large. It is found that the iteration is effective on the deck
deflection in small rainfall.
The number of iteration imax in the incremental step of 3 to
490 is shown in Fig.16 and imax is 10 to 30 in each step. In the

Deck deformation (mm)

Fig.13 Bending stress of deck in liquid density 1100 kg/m

-100
-200
-300

Rainfall
20 mm
20 mm : No iteration
50 mm
50 mm : No iteration

-400
-500
0.0

0.2

0.4
0.6
Radius ratio r/R D

0.8

1.0

Fig.15 Comparison of deck deformation

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(4)The bending stress rapidly increases with approaching the

edge.

35
n 3

30

Liquid density 700 kg/m

Iteration imax

25
20
15
10
n =1 : i max = 1000
n =2 : i max = 212

5
0
0

100

200
300
Stage n

400

500

Fig.16 The number of iteration

CONCLUSITONS
The deformation analysis of the single-deck floating roof
under accumulated rain water condition is carried out using the
nonlinear axisymmetric shell finite element method. In this
analysis, the equivalent nodal forces due to the rain water
converges to coincide with the rain water load derived from the
deflected deck shape of current step.
The following
conclusions are obtained.
(1)The displacement of the deck center increases with
decreasing the liquid density. The deflection of the deck
except for the edge part becomes horizontal when the liquid
density exceeds the rain water density.
(2)Small liquid density produces high membrane stresses in the
deck.
(3)The radial membrane stress is tensile in all part of the deck
and it approaches to zero at the edge. The circumferential
membrane stress is tensile in center part of the deck and it
becomes compressive in the edge part.

REFERENCES
[1]American Petroleum Institute, 2007, "API Standard 650,
Appendix C".
[2]Yoshida, S.; 1983, "Geometrically Nonlinear Finite Element
Analysis of a Floating Roof ", The Piping Engineering,
25(8), pp.51-57(in Japanese).
[3]Yoshida, S. and Miyoshi, T., 1990, "Buckling Analysis of
Single-Deck Type Floating Roofs", Transaction of Japan
Society of Mechanical Engineers, Series A, 56(521), pp.3338(in Japanese).
[4]Yoshida, S. and Miyoshi, T. and Okamoto, S., 1990,
"Buckling Analysis of Floating Roofs in Oil Storage Tanks
under Accumulated Rainwater Loading", Proceedings of
Symposium on Numerical Method in Engineering, 14,
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[5]Mitchell, G.C. 1973, "Analysis and Stability of Floating
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