5 The design of tank roofs - fixed

The lower part of the trusses generally protrude down belowthe

Figure 5.12 A view fiom oubide the tank shell when the roof had failed
Courtesy of Whessoe
kind enough to wait until they had gone for lunch. Figure 5.12
shows a view from outside the tank shellwhichwasforced into a
curious, but quite regular shape by the action of the main
trusses pulling inwards as the rooffailed.
The American Code does not specifically mention these brac-
ing requirements, but nevertheless, it is generally thought to be
good practice to include them in roofs of this type.
This type of roof is commonly used within the range of 15 m to
60 m diameter.
a
level of the top of the tank shell and hence can become sub.
merged in the stored product. In certain circumstances, or for
some corrosive stored products, this may be an undesirable
feature.
5.5.1.5 Design example
These days there are computer-aided design packages avail-
able for structural designers to use, but for this example, the
tried and tested "hand-cranked" method is demonstrated.
The exercise willdemonstrate howthe sizes of the members oi
a 30 m diameter roof structure are calculated.
The arrangement of rafrers and purlins in one of 12 bays of the
structure is shown in Figure 5.13. The three intermediate raf-
ters per bayare supported attheirouter end bythe shelland by
three purlins in the plane ofthe rool The rafters lie on top of the
purlins which in turn transmit the rafter loads to the main
trusses. The load on the sections of rafrers is determined bydi-
viding the roof sector into panels as shown in Figure 5.13, the
size ofthese panels is calculated using simple geometric meth-
oos.
The numbers in Figures 5.13, represent plan areas in m2
As before:
Superimposed load = 1200 N/m'?
Dead load (structure and roof plating; = 749 Jrl7rz
(Derived from experience)
Total loading = 1940 N/m'?

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c*dD

Figure 5.13 Arrangements of rafters and pudins Th

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si
=h

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Th
TI
dri
Figure 5.14 Uniformly distribuled rafter loads and rafie. reactions

128 STORAGE TANKS & EQUIPMENT