The calculations of fuel tanks should take into account the geometric imperfections of the structure as well as the variability of the material parameters of the foundation. The deformation of the tank shell can have a significant impact on the limit state of the structure and its operating conditions. The paper presents a probabilistic analysis of a vertical-axis, floating-roof cylindrical shell of a tank with a capacity of 50000 m3 placed on stratified soil with heterogeneous material parameters. The impact of a random subsoil description was estimated using the Point Estimated Method (PEM). In this way, the number of analyzed FEM models was significantly reduced. This approach also makes it possible to assess the sensitivity of tank settlement and deformation to the changing foundation conditions.

Fuel tanks are designed with regard to standard loads and operating conditions. The investigations of the paper show the impact of such factors as tank corrosion and other means on variation of stress fields and deformation of the underground horizontal tank shell. Introduction of probabilistic methods allows for structural reliability assessment. While the computational time of the entire tank FEM model is high the preliminary analysis is restricted to structural part only. The analysis makes it possible to optimize the structure with regard to construction costs.