Implementing a Holistic Ductile Design Approach To Stainless Steel Wine Storage Tanks

Abstract eng:
The M w 6.6 Lake Grassmere earthquake on the 16th of August 2013, located near Seddon, Marlborough, New Zealand, caused significant damage to the stainless steel wine storage tanks, and associated infrastructure, at many of the wineries in Marlborough, the largest wine producing region in New Zealand. As well as costly damage to tanks, significant volumes of wine were lost and disruption to operations continue today as repairs are undertaken. This damage highlighted many deficiencies in the tanks design and fabrication, and exposed an apparent knowledge gap between the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) 2009 guideline Seismic Design of Liquid Storage Tanks and its implementation into the wine industry. The NZSEE document for tank design appears to lack specific guidance to deal with the subtle nuances of the wine industry and the wine tank configurations which are commonly used in wine regions around the world. This paper summarizes the common types of damage observed following the earthquake and provides indications of likely causes. It goes on to discuss improvements that can be made to current design thinking to minimize the risks of such failures. Finally, this paper outlines anchoring systems and holistic design methods recently developed by New Zealand consulting structural engineering firm Structex in the form of the Onguard seismic tank system. The Onguard system is now widely utilised in New Zealand and being installed in California. This system utilises ductile and capacity design approaches to protect the tanks and their valuable contents, using a yielding element that is easily replaceable following a large seismic event, minimising disruption to the winery.

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