Abstract: In order to improve the safe operation and management of storage tanks, 183 typical failure cases of storage tanks at home and abroad were analyzed. Aiming at the problems of fire and explosion accidents of storage tanks and based on the case collection and the on-site production characteristics of the operation area, the fault tree analysis and EFFECTS analysis were respectively carried out for qualitative and quantitative analysis. The results show that: under the given parameters, the damage range of fire thermal radiation increases with the increase of the leakage aperture and the environmental wind speed, while the damage range of the overpressure shock wave is proportional to the leakage aperture and inversely proportional to the environmental wind speed. Under the same wind speed, the safe distance of the overpressure shock wave caused by a leakage aperture of 75mm is about 2.6 times larger than that caused by a leakage aperture of 25mm; the thermal radiation death radius of a leakage aperture of 75mm is 1.2 times that of a leakage aperture of 25mm. The most important factor affecting the fire and explosion of storage tanks is the leakage aperture.

Key words: large storage tank, risk factor identification, accident tree, EFFECTS, fire and explosion simulation analysis