Water temperature effects on buried concrete tanks

[rikmayall]

Currently designing a water storage tank in Saudi Arabia. The tank is 70m long with no movement joints, inducing very large tension forces within the walls due to temperature differentials. It is 7m high and 1m is above ground.

As it is in Saudi it's subject to large temperature differentials above ground, and we have plenty of information relating to how the surrounding ground affects the concrete tank's temperature below ground, but we are dealing with storage tanks holding water of an average temperature of ~33 deg Celcius, which we can't find anything on. I am modelling the structure in Staad Pro.

I am looking for anything with information of how internal water temperature effects buried concrete structures. Ideally the temperature differential from top->bottom of structure would be gradual/minimal to avoid massive tension forces. I'm sure it will be due to the effect the water will have, but I have nothing to support this!

Attached is a link to the structure (not showing the roof/external ground levels/internal water etc)

 

[Ron]

The thermal gradient will be moderated by the water in the tank. If the mass of water in the tank is at 33C, the tank walls will be close to that, except where exposed on top....that gradient will vary throughout the day. For something like this, if you have a tank already under similar conditions, put some thermal measuring devices on it and see what you get....actual data usually works better than supposition or fickle computation.