Tsunami Damage to Oil Storage Tanks

Abstract eng:
The giant Indian Ocean tsunami of December, 2004 caused damage to oil storage tanks in Aceh Province of Sumatra Island. Some of them collapsed and others floated and moved several hundreds of meters. The author investigated the damaging of these tanks. Conclusions are as follows: 1) Storage tanks containing little oil can be easily floated and moved by a tsunami. The floating tank may then collide with adjacent tanks, causing leakage of oil. A fire may then be triggered, causing massive environmental destruction. 2) Similar widely spreading tsunami could simultaneously damage a number of oil storage stations and cause serious disruption to the world economy. 3) An effective countermeasure against floating is to place a cylindrical wall around the tank or an impermeable liner around the base plate of the tank. 4) It would be advantageous for piping to uncouple from the side valve of a tank when a tsunami flow force is applied to the piping. 5) In tsunami-prone areas, oil leakage prevention dikes should also be designed against tsunami pressure from the outside.

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