Seismic Analysis of Steel Cylindrical Liquid Storage Tank Using Coupled Acoustic-Structural Finite Element Method For Fluid-Structure Interaction

Abstract

A seismic analysis of ground-supported, three-dimensional (3-D) rigid-base steel cylindrical liquid storage tank is investigated, using a coupled acoustic-structural finite element (FE) method for fluid-structure interaction (FSI). In this method, the contained liquid in the tank is modelled using acoustic elements and the cylindrical tank is modelled using shell elements. The impulsive and convective terms are estimated separately by using the appropriate boundary conditions on the free surface of the liquid. The convergence and validation studies of the proposed FE model are conducted by comparing the results reported in the literature. The parametric studies are performed for rigid and flexible tanks for the varying slenderness of the open roof tanks. The sloshing displacement and base shear time history responses are evaluated for the 3-D tanks subjected to harmonic unidirectional ground motions. Further, the results are compared with the commonly used two and three lumped-mass models of the tank. Moreover, the seismic response quantities of the tank subjected simultaneously to the bi-directional horizontal components of earthquake ground motion are also investigated using the 3-D FE model, and the response quantities are compared with the lumped-mass models. The results obtained from the 3-D FE model and lumped-mass model are in close agreement. The average percentage difference in the 3-D FE and lumped-mass models for maximum sloshing displacement prediction is 15 percent to 20 percent and that for the base shear is about 4 to 10 percent, in the case of the uni-directional harmonic ground motions. It is concluded that the sloshing displacement is not affected by the tank flexibility, but the impulsive hydrodynamic pressure and the impulsive component of the base shear increases with the tank flexibility.

Development, verification, and validation of comprehensive acoustic fluid‐structure interaction capabilities in an open‐source computational platform

“…For non-seismic applications, Bunting et al [24] and Bunting and Miller [25] present V&V of acoustic FSI. For seismic applications, Rawat et al [26] and Rawat et al [27] verified and validated the wave heights from acoustic FSI for both cylindrical and rectangular tanks with numerical and experimental results from Chen et al [28] under uni-directional shaking. Furthermore, Rawat et al [26] verified the pressures in a cylindrical tank with analytical solutions under uni-directional shaking.…”

“…For seismic applications, Rawat et al [26] and Rawat et al [27] verified and validated the wave heights from acoustic FSI for both cylindrical and rectangular tanks with numerical and experimental results from Chen et al [28] under uni-directional shaking. Furthermore, Rawat et al [26] verified the pressures in a cylindrical tank with analytical solutions under uni-directional shaking. Phan and Paolacci [29] validated the pressure and wave height time series from acoustic FSI with experimental results using one uni-directional earthquake input.…”

“…For seismic applications, Rawat et al. [ 26 ] and Rawat et al. [ 27 ] verified and validated the wave heights from acoustic FSI for both cylindrical and rectangular tanks with numerical and experimental results from Chen et al.…”

“…Furthermore, Rawat et al. [ 26 ] verified the pressures in a cylindrical tank with analytical solutions under uni‐directional shaking. Phan and Paolacci [ 29 ] validated the pressure and wave height time series from acoustic FSI with experimental results using one uni‐directional earthquake input.…”

Experimental and numerical modal analysis of wall tubes in the coal‐fired boiler or radiant syngas cooler

“…Wang et al [ 11 ] analyzed the coupled vibration characteristics of the liquid‐filled pipe and the supporting structure system based on the FE method. Rawat et al [ 12 ] investigated a seismic analysis of a ground‐supported, three‐dimensional, rigid‐base steel cylindrical liquid storage tank, using a coupled acoustic‐structural FE method for fluid–structure interaction. Eslaminejad et al [ 13 ] considered the vibration of an aluminium hemispherical shell filled with inviscid compressible fluid, and the modal frequencies, damping ratio, and mode shapes of the shell were experimentally determined using a roving hammer‐impact test.…”