oil refineries and tank-terminals are many times located at sea-coasts rivers.The soil at these locations is seldom rock or other hard material.Tanks are very seldom installed on a piled foundation, as this is very costly and also technically not attractive.The normal practice is that the tanks are installed on a sand tank pad with a height of approximately 75 cm and covered with a sand-bitumen top layer.When tanks are placed at locations where weak,compressible layers are present in the soil under the tank,soil settlement will be experienced