Abstract: One of the major controlling factors in the construction of oil tank farms over soft soils is the differential settlement among the tanks. The analysis of the settlement of these tanks is increasing complicated due to the settlement interactions among tanks. A finite differential model that accounts for the coupled fluid and solid mechanics was set up using FLAC 3D software. With the combined effect of pore water pressure and effective stress, the loading sequence of the grouped storage tanks was studied.  The result indicates that the optimized sequence is to load the diagonal tanks first.

Key words: Storage Tank Farm, Loading Sequences, Fluidsolid Coupling, Three Dimensional Finite Difference Models