The Cooling Water Intensity Design of Crude Oil Tanks Based on Standard Analysis and New Calculation Model

摘要

The crude oil tank design methods presented in various codes are usually based on insulation, especially in China. However, the insulation of tank and wall cooling may be contradictory since the insulation of tank wall may prevent the wall cooling. Once the tank on fire, if the cooling water cannot effectively play the cooling role, the burning tank may collapse and the heat radiation from the fire could threaten tanks nearby. The design of insulation for crude oil tank should account for both fire cooling and insulation. In insulation, the issues related are to prevent heat loss as much as possible, and make oil temperature maintain at a certain range. Inadequate flow of cooling water often causes the nearby tanks to absorb a large number of radiant heats, and largely increase the fire risks. Consequently, in order to eliminate hidden dangers to protect the safety of tank group, the cooling water flow and the thermal resistance of insulation should be considered together. In recent years, a number of projects have been funded to develop some crude oil reserve bases in China. In this work, the different water requirements between Chinese codes and others is pointed out firstly. Then the control factors of the cooling water flow and the thermal resistance of insulation are examined. Then the calculational model of fire cooling water and insulation on crude oil tank is built. Obviously the insulation may reduce fire cooling impact on crude oil tanks. At last, a rude water requirement results and future work are discussed. Based on this paper, the tank manager can be aware of the potential fire threaten tank group and able to choose to do something in advance for prevention and remediation. It is believed that the approach to the calculational model of fire cooling and insulation presented in this paper may lay the initial basis for tank fire prevention.