ANALYSIS OF FLOATING Roors By ODE-SOLVER METHOD By Si Yuan,’ Jianlin Wang,’ and Hongzhi Zhong" Agsrnact: An ODE-solver-based method for the solution of the deflection and stresses of the deck plate of| fan oll storage tank floating roof, elther with or without central pontoon, Is proposed in this paper. Based on the bending theory for the lage deflection of thin plates, a system of standard ordinary differential equations (ODES) and associated boundary conditions forthe problem is derived with various factors taken into consid- eration, The ODE system is then solved directly and efficiently by using a standard general-purpose ODE solver ‘withthe solution accuracy satisfying the user-specified error tolerance. Two numerical examples are given t© show the remarkable performance ofthe proposed method. INTRODUCTION ‘The floating roof of a welded steel tank for oil storage con- sists essentially of a circular deck plate and an outer pontoon around the plate. The deck plate is subjected to large deflection under a rainwater loading. With no exception, inthe codes of four different countries (“"Welded" 1988; “Specification"* 1985; “British” 1989; "Chinese" 1992), the deck plate is required to be capable of bearing a total fainfall of 250 mm lover the floating roof. With the increase of the capacity of oil tanks, a circular one-compartmented pontoon is installed atthe center of the deck plate to strengthen the roof, which increases the difficulty of the analysis of the deflection and stresses of the roof, For the large deflection without the central pontoon, there have been a number of analyses available, which can roughly be divided into two groups, numerical methods and simplified formulas. Based on the membrane theory, Unuki and Ishireta (1985) and Mitchell (1973) applied numerical methods to the solution of the large deflection, By taking the rainwater as a uniformly distributed load, “Calculation” (1982) and Pan et al. (1986) provided a few simplified formulas for the large deflection, in which the influence of the deck deflection on the rainwater redistribution was not taken into account. In spite of these effors, analytical work with the central pontoon taken into consideration is very hard to find. ‘The present paper is concerned with a general analysis of the deflection and stresses of a floating roof, either with or ‘without a central pontoon, by using the ODE (ordinary differ ential equation)-solver method, Taking advantage of a general- purpose ODE solver has enabled the writers to directly solve forthe large deflection based on the bending theory rather than the membrane theory. In addition, the present analysis accom- modates, without increasing the analysis difficulty, quite @ number of important factors, such as the redistribution of the rainwater due to the large deflection, and the translation and rotation of the outer pontoon. In the following analysis, the following assumptions have been made 1. The rainwater fills the whole deck plate, and flows over neither the outer pontoon nor the central pontoon, 2. The outer pontoonéeck plate interface is s0 connected "Prot, Dept of Gv. Engg, Tanghaa Univ, Balj, 100068, China sonD Candidate, Dept. of Civ. Engrg, Tsinghua Univ. Being, 109084, Chin. "assoc: Prof, Dept. of Civ. Engrg. Tsinghua Uni, Being. 100084, foi. Associate Editor: P K. Banerjee. Discusion open until March 1, 1999. To extend the closing date ove moath awrite request must be filed withthe ASCE Manager of Journals The manuscript for tht piper was submited for review and posible publication on May 13 {86 This pope is part of the Jounal of Engineering Mechanier, Vol 124, No, 10, October, 1998, ©ASCE, ISSN 0733-9399/980010-1129~ 11347880 45.50 per page, Paper No. 18275, that the outer pontoon can have deformations as well as, rigid body motions. 3. An installing angle at the outer pontoon/deck plate con- rection is allowed. Nevertheless, atthe central pontoon ‘deck plate interface there is no such installing angle, i the deck plate keeps flat atthe connection to the central its deformations are ignored. GOVERNING SYSTEM OF EQUATIONS ‘The deck plate is very thin (usually less than 10 mm) and is subjected to large deflection under a rainwater loading. In- stead of using the membrane theory, the bending theory for the large deflection of an axisymmetrcally loaded thin plate is employed in the following analysis. Load on Deck Plate “The load on the deck plate can be written as (see Fig. 1) (0) = (hy + whpas + Woe — (Te + wipe (1) where w = vertical deflection of the plate deck; py = rainwater density; p, = liquid density: Was = deck weight per unit area; ‘maximum sinking depth of the outer pontoon; hy = thick- nes of the rainwater above the deck deflection; and c = ver- tical separation between the deck plate and the bottom of the ‘outer pontoon, Since the large deflection w changes the rain- Water distribution, the load on the deck plate is a function of w when the storage liquid is oil. However, in test condition when the storage liquid is water, pis ofthe same value as poy and the load is uniformly distributed and is irelevant to the deflection w. The fact thatthe amount of rainwater is @ given value leads to the following condition: aioe or by rearrangement oi @ oo where o = Ry/Ry; 1 = RlRy: Ry Re, and Ry = radi of the roof, of the deck plate, and of the central pontoon, respectively; and ‘hg = 250 mm according tothe codes “Welded” (1988), “Spec- ification” (1985), “British” (1989), and "Chinese" (1992). Eq, (3) serves as the governing equation for hy. Large Deflection Equations ‘The most commonly used governing equations forthe large deflection of an axisymmetrically loaded thin plate in polar JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS OCTOBER 1908/1129,FIG. 1. Roof Detlection under Rainwater Loading coordinates are the following ODEs (Unuki and Ishireta 1985; Mitchell 1973): nistele())- ® late thickness; E= Young's mod- EPI(L ~ viVi2 = bending siffness of the plate; and = Poisson's ratio. For convenience of analysis, however, the writers have adopted the following set of equivalent first-order ODEs: RereR o where u, i}, Qn and M, = respectively, the radial displacement, radial rotation of the middle surface, transverse shearing force, and radial moment of the deck plate. Eqs. (5) provide direct Solution to the deflection and internal forces of the deck plate without further differentiation, and hence are more flexible in establishing various boundary conditions. Boundary Conditions (BCs) (On the inner boundary (r = Ry) and the outer boundary (r = Ry) of the plate, the following boundary conditions (BCS) are imposed. BCs at r = Ry Central Pontoon/Deck Plate Interface (On account of assumption 3, ve0 at o and assumption 4 gives ar o ‘The vertical equilibrium for the central pontoon yields 2RynQ, + Wy Te + wpgkin=0 at r=R, 8) ‘where W; = total weight of the central pontoon including the bottom plate. Eqs. (6), (7), and (8) provide three BCS at the central pontoon/deck plate interface BCs at r = Ry, Outer Pontoon/Deck Plate Interface By assuming an installing angle 8 at the outer pontoon/deck plate connection (see Fig. 1), deflection and rotation BCs are weo o -8 ao) 1130/JOUANAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS / OCTOBER 1998 at r= Ry, The next BC is concemed with the radial displace- ‘ment compatibility condition atthe connection. The outer pon toon can be considered as a compartmented circular ring, and its radial displacement A can be determined by the following ('Caleulation™" 1982): ay Re where E, = Young's modulus of the outer pontoon; Re = (Ry “+ Roy? % average radius ofthe outer pontoon; Ay = 32, bf, = fective area ofthe outer pontoon Eross section; by (= fy 2, 3,4) = width of the inner, tp, outer, and bottom shell of the outer pontoon, respectively; and and n, = corresponding thickness and effective cross section factor. Eq (11) yields a BC atr a2) awk aa, Eqs. (9), (10), and (12) provide three BCs at the outer pontoon deck plate interface. ‘The vertical equilibrium for the outer pontoon yields. punk — 7X T= W,~2RmQ, (14) where W; = total weight of the outer pontoon; Q, = vertical shearing force of the deck plate at r = Rj; and T, = sinking depth ofthe outer pontoon due to the slope of the bottom shell, which can be evaluated, according to Pan et al. (1986), as follows: dt 2na =o Srey Rana as, ‘where a= tilt angle of the bottom shell of the outer pontoon. Rewriting (14) leads to an explicit expression for 7: W, = 2820, +1 a6, pswRid = 7) Eq, (16) provides an access to the sinking depth 7. ‘Summary of Equations. (On account of the foregoing analysis, one has eight un- knowns: hi, T, ts %, Nn Qn and My, in which the first two are unknown constants and the others are functions of r. The governing ODES and the associated BCs are summarized as follows. + ODEs: ae a RereRs an as)u=0 ay 2RemQ.+Wy—(T—e+wypreRin=0 20) At r= Ry (S BCs) wo an @ [oorenBla-neenoy ao pism(D¥A\U—TKT-T)=Wy— 2m. 25) ‘STANDARD ODE SYSTEM ‘The foregoing system of equations, (17)-(25), is not in a standard form for a standard ODE solver. Applying a number of the ODE conversion techniques (Yuan 1991), however, (17)-@25) can be transformed into a standard first-order ODE system defined on a standard interval (—1, 1], and then solu- tion can be accomplished simply by using a general-purpose ODE solver ‘Standardization of ODEs and BCs Applying the trivial ODE technique, two trivial ODEs are ‘established for the unknown constants h, and 7: WOT =0 Berek 9) where ( )' = dt dr. By using the equivalent ODE technique, the integral relation (24) can be transformed into an equivalent ‘ODE form by introducing a new unknown function f Sewer Berek: ara SR) = 0 en) AAR) = Rhy — I? + yoy are) Consequently, the problem is converted to a set of nine first order ODEs with exactly nine associated BCs. Taking advan- tage of the interval mapping technique and making the follow ing coordinate transformation RoR, Bt, dr BAR es EH, ar RR ay one arrives ata set of standard nonlinear ODE system: @) + BCs: ou 2RrQ, a ~ (To + wyegRin=0 t=-1 Gd) =O b= pe DIAN ~ PT 7.) = Wy — 2k: a P+ ho) t= f= Sty het + hot) t= ca Rotation of Outer Pontoon, Under the rainwater, the outer pontoon is subjected to a small rotation ¢ about its cross section centroid (See Fig. 2) This factor can be incorporated into the foregoing analy’ ‘with slight modification as discussed late. Due to the additional rotation ¢, the tilt angle a should be replaced by (a ~ 6), and tan(a ~'¢) is also simplified to be (a ~ 6). Consequently, the earlier 7, now becomes 2 Rua = 6) en By combining the rotation compatibility condition at r= Rs le a G3) the verial equilibrium for the outer pontoon can be writen ta — 9) [7-2 4200-9 peas oaenia 2) [7-252 =P aes 8 +o] W, - 280, oo [Next consider the moment equilibrium about the cross sec- tion centroid of the outer pontoon. It arrives at the following relationship (Unuki and Ishireta 1985), ¢ {et W+o- oy ies +00, + M,=0 6s where M; = radial bending moment of the deck plate at r = Rurand A = R, + O,= radius ofthe outer pontoon to its cross section centroid. O, is the horizontal distance between the ‘105s section centoid andthe inner shell, which canbe given 0, b Fy, Cabal + Amboy + nba) 66, (0, n (35) is the vertical distance between the centroid and the inner shell bottom, which can be expressed as riba + mabai(2b + @) + mybytiby ~ 2d) — mtd) on FIG. 2 Rotation of Outer Pontoon JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS OCTOBER 1998/1131‘The moment of inertia of the outer pontoon with respect to x is written as hs < Bs ndae(0,+8) minting n 3) and (5) aves a aw +p {tor + 6-00 + Bh + mo,+a-e = 040 + B+ 0.0.4 Me=0 © Thus, (22) should be replaced by (39), and (23) should be modified as I++ BO+d-9=0 40) Corresponding modifications should also be carried out to (30) and (31) in the standard ODE system, NUMERICAL ALGORITHM AND EXAMPLES: Eqs. (29)~31) form a standard nonlinear ODE system, which is ready to be input to a general-purpose ODE solver. In the present study, the solver COLSYS (Ascher et al 1981a,b) has been chosen for its effectiveness and efficiency. ‘With the advanced adaptivity function built in the solver COL- SYS, all solution components are expected to be numerically ‘exact provided the user-specified error tolerance for the solver is sufficiently stringent ‘To facilitate the nonlinear solution procedure, the continu ‘ation method (Ascher et al. 1981a,b) is employed. In this ‘method, one starts the solution witha larger £ (a thicker plate to reduce the nonlinearity) and obtains a solution easly. Then, using the obtained solution as the initial solution, one solves (29)-@31) with a smaller t. This continuation step is repeated Until the thickness is reduced to the desired one, The contin uation procedure is summarized into the following algorithm. Algorithm, 1. Let i= 0, and X® satisfying O-= X= 1 2, Assume an initial thickness ¢ (eg, $Or ~ 800) and a Set of simple starting solutions, for instance, a cosine function for w. Then, solve (29)~(31) by COLSYS. 3. Let =i +1 and choose ° with 0 A" <= 1 4. Let ¢ = — AMC — 0). Then, use the previous so- lutions a8 the initial solutions and solve 29)~(31) by COLSYS. 5. IF COLSYS succeeds in convergence, end the procedure when N= 1; otherwise, go 0 step 3. If COLSYS cannot produce a convergent solution, take a smaller X with NEVER EAY and go to step 4 . which is a continuation factor ‘This algorithm has been coded into a FORTRAN program with COLSYS incorporated as the ODE solver, and the per- formance is very satisfactory. In most cases, the results satis- {ying the typical error tolerance of 0.01% can be obtained after ‘only several iterations, and the time spent is afew seconds on ‘a PC 486-66 MHz computer. In what follows, two application examples are presented to demonstrate the femarkable performance of the proposed ‘method. In both examples, a is set to be zero and the effective factors of the cross section of the inner, top, outer, and bottom 1192/ JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS / OCTOBER 1998 shells of the outer pontoon are taken as 1.0, 0.4, 1.0, and 0.4, respectively. Furthermore, the error tolerance given to the ‘ODE solver COLSYS is denoted by Tol. For engineering pur- ‘poses, typical values of Tol range from 1~5%, but examples with more stringent values were also included in the present study to assess the quality, accuracy, reliability, and stability of the proposed algorithm. Example J. Floating Roof without Central Pontoon In this example, the behavior of a floating roof without a central pontoon under a total 250-mm rainfall is examined, ‘The design parameters are shown in Table 1 and the numerical results By the present method with Tol = 0.05 are given and compared with other known solutions in Table 2. It can be seen that in general, the results of the ODE-solver method agree well with the available results of the Runge-Kutta ‘method (Unuki and Ishireta 1985). The main difference be- tween the two methods mainly lies in the fact thatthe bending deflection of the deck plate is taken into account in this paper. It is well known that the bending stresses only appear locally rear the outer boundary for such kind of problems whereas comparisons of average radial stresses eliminate the effect of bending stresses. Since no central pontoon exists, the deck deflection is so large thatthe rainwater only partially fils the deflected plate, and strictly speaking, the governing ODEs now should be set up piecewise along the radial direction. None of the methods used in Table 2, however, takes this partial load into consideration, and therefore further comparison and dis- cussion of the bending effect for this particular problem does ‘not make much sense. The boundary effect due to bending stresses will be discussed in more detail in the next example, where the rainwater fills the whole deflected deck plate and there are no conflicts with the theoretical formulation the pres- ent algorithm is based on. Example 2. Floating Roof with Central Pontoon In this example, the behavior of a floating roof with a cen- tral pontoon under a total 250-mm rainfall is examined, The TABLE 1._Design Parameters of Examined Root Value @ ‘2,600 mae 539,600 mm "3.000 490 am 00 mm 12am mm 43 mm : 3 mm wy, 15200 kg w, 135,000 kp ee 100 kam! e 210,000 MPa 0 TABLE 2. Deflection and Stresses of Examined Root [Un and ishirets (19851) present Pavan Method 1 | Method 2 | method @ % @ wea arr rosso | 10210 | 11548 oem) at 10 143 | tas ‘average 0; Gglinm?) tro] 868 8% | 939 ‘Average oy tkglmim) at r= Ri] 19 ree] 13sexamined tank is a practical project concerned with a 10,000- 1m” oil storage tank designed and consiructed in China. The design parameters are shown in Table 3 and the numerical results computed by the present method with three different error tolerances are listed in Table 4, The computed results in Table 4 reveal that bending moments (and hence bending stresses) are the most sensitive and difficult quantity to com ppute, and in spite of the difficulty of the bending deflection the Computed results steadily converge 10 stable values as the error tolerance decreases. Table 5 shows the maximum deflec- tion and stress of the deflected plate, from which it can be seen that the deck plate satisfies the strength requirement, Fig. 3 shows in detail the radial bending moment of the eck plate based on the results with To! = 0.5 X 10", and the well-known boundary effect duc to the introduction of bending deflection is evident. It is observed from Table 4 and Fig. 3 that the bending stresses near the pontoon/deck connections are not negligibly small, and hence the bending theory is more preferable to the membrane theory for an accurate analysis. Fig. 4 shows the computed deflection of the deck plate, in which the deflection without the central pontoon is also pro- vided for comparison. Itis noteworthy thatthe central pontoon takes great effect in reducing the maximum deflection, which ‘occurs at an interior point between the two boundaries. TABLE 3. Design Parameters of 10,000 Tanke Parameter « Value 38750 mam 5000 mm 480 mn 980 mm 30 mn 9.0mm 43 mm 60mm 12,000 mm 20 mm 139,882 kg 155028 ke 6254 kg 466 kai 191,000 Ma TABLE 4. Computed Results for Example 2 Tol= 05 x] Tow 08 x] Tore 05 Parameter wor | aoe | a0 o @ @ o Siemarem ws | ase | ee Basttrum am) a = ‘width of outer pontoon; = width of inner, top, outer, and bottom shells of outer pontoon with i= 1, 2,3, and 4, respectively: ‘¢ = vertical separation between deck plate dnd bottom of outer pontoon: D = BPW ~ viyI2 = bending egidiy of deck plate; Giameter of tank; vertical separation between two ends of bottom shell of outer pontoon; ‘Young's modulus of deck plate; ‘Young's modulus of outer pontoon: vertical separation between two ends of top shell of outer pontoon; _ravitational acceleration; epth of rainwater over floating roof; ‘depth of rainwater above deck deflection; ‘moment of inertia of outer pontoon with respect to x; radial moment of deck plate; ‘ial membrane force of deck plate; Annular membrane force of deck plate; horizontal distance between cross section centroid of outer pontoon and its inner shell verlcal distance between cross section otro tes poem mee bate its inner shes transverse shearing force of deck plate; 1794/ JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING MECHANICS / OCTOBER 1908 R a= applied vertical load per unit area on radius of deck plate; radius of central pontoon; verge radius of outer pontoon: ‘adius of outer pontoon to its cross sec- ton centroid; ‘reoordinate in polar coordinates; ‘maximum sinking depth of outer pon- sinking depth of outer pontoon due to slope of bottom shell, thickness of deck plate; {thickness of inner, top, outer, and bottom shell of outer pontoon with 7 = 1, 2,3, and 4, respectively; radial displacement of deck plate in ri- ‘weight of outer pontoon; weight of central pontoon including its bottom plate; total weight of deck plate; deck weight per unt area; Vertical deflection of deck plate; tilt angle of botiom shell of outer pon installment angle at outer pontoon/deck imerace;, ‘radial displacement of outer pontoon; effective factor of cross sections of inner, top, outer, and bottom shells of outer pontoon with # = 1, 2, 3, and 4, respec tively ‘nondimensional parameter, Poisson's ratio of deck plate: rainwater density; liquid density: RR ‘ail normal sress of deck plate: RR, roiation of euter pontoon; and rotation of deck pate