A system consists of lifted steel tank and four assembly supports with variable assembly conditions

In the method of steel tank erection, consisting in assembling the roof and the next courses (segments) of the shell at the ground level, starting from the top one (the so-called hydraulic jacking-up method), the assembled part of the tank is lifted using assembly supports (towers, trestles), hydraulic jacks and ropes. Supports are located inside or outside the tank, and their bases are usually not anchored. During the assembly work, numerous contaminations can appear under the bases of the supports; therefore, boundary conditions of the system consisting of the elevated tank and assembly supports may change, influencing the field of displacements and stresses in the elements of this system. This article presents the results of numerical tests of an exemplary mounted tank – mounting support system – at various possible coefficients of friction between the bases of the supports and the ground. The influence of the support conditions on the effort of the essential elements of the system was assessed. Calculation difficulty was noted to determine the directions of horizontal responses of the supports. It was assumed that these directions did not change after exceeding the values of the friction forces. The analysed tank collapsed during its erection.