UK office of IDEA StatiCa s.r.o.
Email: info@ideastatica.uk
Phone: +44 (0) 20 3579 9397
by
Dale Price
BEng(Hons), CEng, FIStructE, MICE
Structural Science Ltd.
As you can see in Figure 1, the steel bolted stay connection or cleats consists of a thin baseplate with a welded fin plate connecting the angle stay between the base and walls or the wall corners of the tank and can be subjected to 75 kN design tension force in normal cases.
Historically, design is normally undertaken by hand calculations and verification of connections has been confirmed by preparing expensive full scale laboratory testing of components and testing full scale site mock ups of tanks.
Figure 1
Figure 2 shows recent full scale testing of a tank where a stay is connected to strain gauges which continually monitor the load on tank stays during water filling and long static water tests.
Figure 2
Back in the laboratory, Figure 3 shows the stay connection being proof tested to code requirements (and of course other strength and failure tests not shown here).
Figure 3
The stay connection has been analyzed with IDEA StatiCa, and the below screen shots summaries the procedure:
Figure 4, describes the overall arrangement of the connection with bolts and welds with 75 kN design axial load to the stays.
Figure 5, highlights the equivalent stress plots indicating the areas of highly stressed components and
Figure 6, indicates developed plastic strains on the baseplate.
Figure 4
Figure 5
Figure 6
Of course, except from pure analysis results, more importantly, IDEA StatiCa provides the overall EC/AISC checks for all elements, as it is shown in Fig.7, giving us very clear Pass/Fail results (Fig.8)
Figure 7
Figure 8
Fig.9 – Deformed shape representation help the engineer to have a better understanding of the connection’s behavior
Braithwaite is an international company with a reputation for technical excellence founded on more than 125 years of experience in bridges and storage tanks. The name Braithwaite is synonymous with a comprehensive range of liquid storage tanks and ancillary products. Our range of Steel and GRP modular tanks has gained an enviable reputation worldwide.
Structural Science a small international structural engineering consultancy based in the South West of England and provide engineering consultancy to Braithwaite and Engineering Consultancies. With over 30 years of experience in tall buildings, long span structures, stadiums, airports, and special structures.
