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Research Collection: Simple Procedure For Seismic Analysis of Liquid-Storage Tanks
Research Collection: Simple Procedure For Seismic Analysis of Liquid-Storage Tanks
Journal Article
Author(s):
Malhotra, Praveen K.; Wenk, Thomas; Wieland, Martin
Publication Date:
2010-08-01
Permanent Link:
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-006032188
Rights / License:
In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted
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ETH Library
Simple Procedure for Seismic Analysis of Liquid-Storage Tanks
Praveen K. Malhotra, Senior Res. Scientist
Factory Mutual Research, Norwood, MA, USA
Thomas Wenk, Civil Eng.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland
Martin Wieland, Dr
Electrowatt Engineering Ltd, Zurich, Switzerland
Model Properties
The natural periods of the impulsive
(Timp) and the convective (Tcon)
responses are
H ρ
Timp = Ci (1)
Fig. 2: Sloshing damage to upper shell of tank (courtesy of University of California at Berkeley) h/r × E
Tcon = Cc r (2)
Method of Dynamic Analysis and first convective modes are consid-
where h is the equivalent uniform
ered satisfactory in most cases. There
thickness of the tank wall, ρ the mass
The dynamic analysis of a liquid-filled is, however, some merit in slightly ad-
density of liquid, and E the modulus of
tank may be carried out using the con- justing the modal properties of these
elasticity of the tank material. The co-
cept of generalised single-degree-of- two modes to account for the entire
efficients Ci and Cc are obtained from
freedom (SDOF) systems representing liquid mass in the tank.
Fig. 4 or Table 1. The coefficient Ci is
the impulsive and convective modes of
dimensionless, while Cc is expressed in
vibration of the tank-liquid system.
s/√m. For tanks with non-uniform wall
For practical applications, only the first Simple Procedure for Seismic thickness, h may be calculated by tak-
few modes of vibration need to be con- Analysis ing a weighted average over the wetted
sidered in the analysis (Fig. 3). The
height of the tank wall, assigning the
mass, height and natural period of
The procedure presented here is based highest weight near the base of the
each SDOF system are obtained by the
on the work of Veletsos and co-work- tank where the strain is maximal.
methods described in [10–14]. For a
ers [10, 12, 14] with certain modifica-
given earthquake ground motion, the 10
tions that make the procedure simple, Ci
response of various SDOF systems
yet accurate, and more generally ap- 8
may be calculated independently and
plicable. Specifically, these modifica-
then combined to give the net base
tions include 6
shear and overturning moment.
– representing the tank-liquid system 4
by the first impulsive and first con- Cc
2
vective modes only
0
– combining the higher impulsive modal 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
mc mass with the first impulsive mode H/R
H hc and the higher convective modal Fig. 4: Impulsive and convective coefficients
hi mi
mass with the first convective mode Ci and Cc
R
Table 2: Comparison of results from proposed procedure with those from detailed analysis
4 (values in parentheses are from the modal analysis)
h’c /H
3
h’i /H Tank contents Importance factor (γI) for
2 Class 1 Class 2 Class 3
1
hc /H Drinking water, non-toxic non-flammable chemicals 1.2 1.0 0.8
Q = ( 1.15 + 0.043 + 0.025 ) × 106 × 0.874 × 9.81 + 1.36 × 106 × 0.07 × 9.81 = 11 MN
Future Research Needs
The overturning moment above the base plate, obtained from Eq. (4), is
In regions of strong ground shaking,
M = ( 1.15 × 3.23 + 0.043 × 4.53 + 0.025 × 9.6 ) × 106 × 0.874 × 9.81 + 1.36 × 106 × 4.66 it is sometimes impractical to design
= 40 MNm tanks for forces obtained from elastic
and the overturning moment below the base plate, obtained from Eq. (5), is (no damage) response analysis. Elastic
forces are so large that they are arbi-
M' = ( 1.15 × 7.13 + 0.043 × 4.53 + 0.025 × 9.6 ) × 106 × 0.874 × 9.81 + 1.36 × 106 × 7.63 × 0.07 × 9.81 trarily reduced by factors of 3 or more
= 81 MNm to obtain the design forces. When sub-
jected to strong shaking, tanks there-
The maximum vertical displacement of the liquid surface due to sloshing, fore respond in a non-linear fashion
obtained from Eq. (6), is and experience some damage. How-
d = 10 × 0.07 = 0.7 m ever, no generally acceptable methods
exist to perform a non-linear seismic