Investigation of Composites-Metal Joints in Repaired Oil Storage Tanks

The finite element analysis has been used to assess composites-metal joints in repairing of corroded oil storagetanks. Abaqus software was used to simulate the oil tank storage under hydrostatic loading. The intralaminar damagewas detected on each layers of laminated composites using the Tsai-Wu failure criterion. In addition, a thin layer ofadhesive with perfect bonding was modeled between the metal and laminated composites. Numerical results showed thatdue to stress concentration, the most probable location of intralaminar damages in composite laminates was near to thelocation of the bottom and wall of the tank. In order to overcome this problem, polymeric fillet was used to decreasestress concentration in this region. Following FE analysis, the effects of different geometrical defects on normal and shearstress distributions of the adhesive joint were investigated. These defects were simulated using a circular hole with thelargest size of the defect in a real case, at the bottom of the oil tank in a radial distance from the wall. The obtainedstacking sequence of laminated composites were used to repair several oil storage tanks and confirmed the simulationresults.

Keywords:

Oil storage metallic tanks , Composite-metal joints , Composites failure criterion , Geometrical defects