Numerical Investigation of Seismically Excited Partially Filled Chamfered Bottom Tanks: Fid-Bau Portal

Numerical Investigation of Seismically Excited Partially Filled Chamfered Bottom Tanks

Roy, Sidhartha Sankar / Biswal, Kishore Chandra

In practice, liquid storage tanks of irregular or complex tank shapes become necessary to prevent tank interference with rigid structural or mechanical components. Factors like the tank geometry, the external excitation's amplitude and frequency content, and the depth of liquid significantly impact the hydrodynamic response of the liquid containers. The variation in the resonant sloshing frequency for different chamfer sizes for varying fill volumes has been investigated suitably. A 2D finite element model developed employing the potential flow theory is used for the present numerical investigation. The hydrodynamic behavior of the chamfer bottom tank under resonance conditions is demonstrated under harmonic excitation over a range of frequencies close to the fundamental sloshing frequency of the tank. The present study focuses on the investigation of the slosh dynamics of the chamfered bottom tank under six different earthquake ground motions classified based on frequency contents. Additionally, base shear force, hydrodynamic pressure, and associated dynamic impulsive and convective components have all been successfully quantified. A parametric study has been done to quantify the changes in the seismic response when the shape of the tank bottom is altered. The highest slosh displacement and base shear force are observed in the tank with l_c/L = 0.1, h_c = 0.25 m, and H_w = 0.275 m, whereas the lowest hydrodynamic response is observed for the tank with l_c/L = 0.4, h_c = 0.1 m, and H_w = 0.29 m. Also, the proposed finite element model may be employed for tuning and designing tuned liquid dampers with chamfered bottom shapes in the future.