Abstract:
Vijaya Bhushan Rao, Author, BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH (Dubai Branch), United Arab Emirates, +971 (56) 545 0821, vijay.bhushan@baueruae.ae
Ali Semercioglu, Technical Engineer, BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH (Dubai Branch), United Arab Emirates, +971 (56) 507 0815, ali.semercioglu@baueruae.ae
Jason Redgers, Contributor, BAUER Spezialtiefbau GmbH (Dubai Branch), United Arab Emirates,
+971 (56) 996 0403, Jason.Redgers@baueruae.ae
ABSTRACT
Large diameter steel water tanks with its high storage capacities impart heavy loads deep into the ground extending over a wider area and require large foundations to support them. The ground improvement design of the foundation soils for such heavily loaded thin-shelled structures will have to meet several performance requirements such as achieving the maximum load bearing capacity at the center, limiting the specified allowable tank edge settlement, typically limiting the differential settlement to 13mm over 10m along the circumference and Dishing settlement from edge to center of 1/300 as per standard API 650 and mitigation of liquefaction risk. Any inadequacy in the geotechnical design of foundation may lead to serviceability or catastrophic failures. Selection of their foundation design is dependent on availability of suitable ground and limitations imposed by design specifications. Two such case studies are evaluated and compared in this paper, for large to medium diameter steel water tanks of 106m Ø, 40m Ø and 50m Ø in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA founded on two types of soils and supported on deep foundations i.e., stone columns and bored cast-in-situ piles. Pre and post improvement testing, and load tests carried out to verify the design.
Keywords: Steel water tanks, High storage, Ground Improvement, Settlements, Field Tests