Investigation of the effect of protective coatings of low density on the response of buried tanks under blast loading

Summary The design and construction of underground reservoirs is of great importance because of our country have rich resources of oil and gas. In order for structure to resist against the blast, geofoam, an effective form of geosynthetics, could be a suitable solution. In this study, two types of soils and three types of geofoam with five different amounts of TNT were simulated. By using Ls-Dyana softwares, this research tries to model a tank in soil using geofoam in order to analyze pressure reduction and damage to the tank. Introduction The current research is a parametric study of the behavior of Tanks buried in the soil under blast loading. The effects on the physical properties of Reinforcement Concrete, soil and TNT were investigated. The LBE method was used in LS-DYNA software and the effects were compared. The results show that higher density soil caused higher pressure transfer to the Tanks buried. Explosions in lower density soil resulted in less damage to the Tanks buried because the soil acted as a damper under the waves of explosion. Tanks buried in soil with a lower density can use Tanks buried with lower resistance because the soil will act as a damper and transmit less pressure to the Tanks buried. Methodology and Approaches The current research is a parametric study of the behavior of Tanks buried in the soil under blast loading. The effects on the physical properties of Reinforcement Concrete, soil and TNT were investigated. The LBE method was used in LS-DYNA software and the effects were compared. Results and Conclusions In this study, two types of soil and three types of geofoam with five different amounts of TNT were used for simulation. The software used for conducting the analysis is Ls-Dyna. The use of lower density soils can reduce the pressure on the tank, while in higher density soils the pressure on the tank increases. One of the most important findings of this study is reduction of pressure on the tank by 60% as a result of using low density soils. Furthermore, an increase in the TNT distance and a decrease in the TNT content were associated with a 52% and a 25% decrease in pressure on the tank, respectively.