Nanocomposites Implementation for Oil Storage Systems Electrostatic Protection

Abstract

Storage tanks are responsible engineering constructions designed to get, store, release and account the oil and petroleum products. Tanks elements in operational conditions sustain significant changes of temperature, high pressure, vibration, seismic loads, uneven subsidence, corrosion. The crucial issue today is to ensure the reliability of operation and trouble-free operation of oil storage systems. One of the main causes of explosions and fires in oil storage tanks (reservoirs) is the static electricity generated in the pipeline during the oil transportation. The aim has been to increase the environmental safety of oil storage systems by effectively neutralizing static electricity using composites and nanocomposites with disordered and ordered systems of fibrous inclusions. Therefore, the innovative oil storage construction with improved characteristics has been proposed in the paper. It has been established the use of filler in the carbon fibers form demonstrates the growth of material strength characteristics in the fibers direction. Complete structured ordering of nanofibers further increases the strength properties in the main direction of the fibers location, but does not significantly reduce the strength characteristics in the other two directions. The results of research prove the use of carbon nanofibers to create the quality nanocomposite is appropriate and could be used to neutralize static electric charges that occur in oil storage and could lead to emergencies.