The Efficacy of Slosh Tank as a Seismic Retrofitiing Technique – A

Literature Review

A. Components of Slosh Tank as a Seismic Retrofitting Technique

Dynamic vibration absorbers called Slosh tank are used to reduce structural
vibration caused by seismic and wind stresses. According to Kevin McNamara,
Bishoy N. Awad(2021), the slosh tank consists of a partially filled tank of liquid
(generally water) that is positioned close to the point where a specific structural
mode vibrates most intensely. By altering the tank's size and liquid depth, the
slosh tank sloshing frequency is controlled to be close to the desired structural
modal frequency. They are inexpensive, simple to adopt, and require little upkeep.
However, it is challenging to develop representative models for slosh tank that are
correct for a variety of activities due to their extremely nonlinear behavior.

The slosh tank has two-parts, active and passive liquid’s function. Slosh
tanks, in brief, where the active liquid is involved in sloshing and the passive
liquid is immobile. It also functions as a system with two degrees of freedom.

The dynamic analysis used in the optimization, which aims to reduce the
maximum displacement of the structure under earthquake excitations in order to
find the ideal amount of active and passive liquids by determining the best
dimensional properties of the liquid tank, used a two-degree-of-freedom (DOF)
model as the top-level decomposition (slosh tank).

Figure 1. Passive and Active Liquid

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 Slosh Tanks have baffle/baffle walls. These are the obstruction walls built
inside a tank to withstand the pressure of fluids and to add effective stability.
Baffle is a component of the vessel's mixing system that facilitates fluid flow for
optimal efficiency. Its principal role is to avoid agitation whirling by turning it into
a desirable flow pattern. According to Shad, Hossein, Adnan, Azlan , Behbahani,
Hamid Pesaran and Vafaei, Mohammadreza , Several bottom-mounted baffles
were put within a TLD, and the dynamic properties of modified TLDs, as well as
their influence on the vibration management of an SDOF structure, The Vertical
Blocking Ratio (VBR) of baffles was the controlling parameter in the testing. The
results showed that increasing VBR lowers the natural frequency of TLD while
increasing its damping ratio. It was discovered that a VBR range of 10% to 30%
greatly lowered the structure's reaction. When structural responses were reduced
under harmonic excitations, the modified TLD with a VBR of 30% performed
best.

Figure 2.

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Shown below are the various baffle arrangements in a tank that consists of vertical
and horizontal baffles.

Figure 3. Model of Slosh Tank

Figure 4. Model of slosh tank with 2 vertical baffles.

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 Figure 5. Model of slosh tank with 4 vertical baffles.

Figure 6. Model of slosh tank with 4 vertical baffles 1 horizontal baffle

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 Figure 7. Model of slosh tank with full baffle

Figure 8. Model of slosh tank with full baffle and horizontal baffle

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 B. Application of Slosh Tank in a structure

The reduction of structure motion caused by external loads, particularly in

high-rise buildings, is one of the biggest engineering challenges of today. Because
the mass and stiffness of the structure are the only elements capable of resisting
these motions, it is necessary to build vibration-absorbing devices to ensure human
comfort, health, and safety. Each of the numerous controlling devices that have
been created as a result of numerous inquiries and studies performs a different
function but primarily focuses on the same goal. Among these are dampening
substances like slosh tanks, which are frequently used on tall buildings (Weekes
and Currie, 2022).

This corroborates Motioneering, Inc.'s (2019) assertion that engineers and

building scientists have used tuned mass dampers (TMDs) and tuned sloshing
dampers (TSDs) including slosh tanks to develop some of the most innovative and
useful high-rise building designs for many years. According to Love, Haskett,
Morava, and Robinson (2021), tuned sloshing damper (TSD) devices including
slosh tanks are increasingly used to lessen the motion caused by wind on tall
buildings because of their accessibility and seeming simplicity. To add, recent
studies have demonstrated that by optimizing slosh tanks to slightly various
frequencies close to the structural mode being controlled rather than having all the
slosh tanks designed to the same frequencies, performance can be increased when
a building is designed with more than one tuned sloshing tanks.

As a matter of fact, it was found that sloshing tanks, if properly designed, can
be very efficient in reducing overall force, floor acceleration, and deformation
responses of multi-degree-of-freedom (MDOF) building structures for broad-band
earthquake condition based seismic excitation in Samanta and Banerji's study from
2022, "Earthquake Vibration Control using Sloshing Liquid Dampers in Building
Structures."

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 Furthermore, slosh tanks and other damping devices work well to lessen
dynamic effects by improving the structure's capacity to absorb energy from
external modes of vibration. For structures with a moderate demand for additional
damping, it is a useful SDS alternative. The total effective damping levels of 3%
to 4% of critical can frequently be reached for a typical mid-rise to high-rise
structure.

Slosh tanks, which primarily focus on counterbalancing the effects of seismic

vibrations, might be a useful system to be incorporated on buildings to further
strengthen the foundation so that it can endure disasters, notably earthquakes.

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 C. Rate of Effectiveness of Slosh Tank in High-Rise Buildings

Slosh tanks are particular kind of damper in which a large amount of water is
added to one tank to increase weight at the top of the structure. It normally
consists of one or more tanks filled with liquid, which will slosh once the building
starts to shake or move. During an earthquake, it picks up the vibration of a
specific building or structure. According to numerous research and trials the
presence of a slosh tank in a high-risk building can mitigate catastrophic damage
caused by a natural disaster. The reaction of the water was discovered to be
nonlinear, as per (A.A Fediw, N. Isyumov, & B.J. Vickery, 2016) of The
University of Western Ontario, London, Canada. The performance of the water
tank was demonstrated to be significantly affected by super rhythmic vibration.
The impact of adding a slosh water tank to a building to boost damping was
assessed for signal that would typically be anticipated in full size.

Bauer was the first to propose a brand-new dampening mechanism that

included a liquid container. He demonstrated how the structure might be
efficiently dampened by the motion of the interface. The application of Tuned
Sloshing Damper (TSD) in structures to lessen overall response during heavy wind
loads was first proposed by Mody & Welt. According to (Anupam Das, Damodar
Maity, Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, 2022), when exposed to environmental
loading from cyclones or earthquakes, high-rise buildings are vulnerable to
significant deflection. There are numerous approaches available to control such
disproportionate miscues. The current study investigates the use of liquid storage
service tanks installed on the roofs of tall buildings as passive dampening devices
to control excessive movement. The depth ratio of these deep liquid tanks (DLTs)
is greater than that of the traditional tuned liquid dampers (TLDs). For the
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numerical evaluation, a square-shaped, symmetrical 10-story reinforced concrete
(RC) building model is used.

Slosh Tanks are useful for shielding the structure from strong vibration. We
are looking towards taller construction solutions because of the limited area and
infrastructure needs. Additionally, a sizable variety of building supplies have
appeared and are employed widely in structures. Utilizing materials with great
strength but low weight decreases the need for space while increasing efficiency.
However, due to structural changes, such structures are now more vulnerable to
the lateral loading caused by earthquake or wind. By introducing methods of
control in the form of active, complacent, or blended systems, efforts are made to
govern the response of tall building systems. It works well to use liquid storage
tanks as a passive control mechanism in tall building systems. Numerous studies
have been conducted in the past to determine the effectiveness of this technology,
sometimes known as tuned liquid dampers or tuned sloshing dampers (TSD). In
the current study, the construction of a numeric codes to show the effectiveness of
such tuned sloshing dampers taking fluid structure interaction impact into
consideration is discussed (SK Bhattacharyya, 2016).

Modern structures tend to be higher, lighter, and more flexible as a result of

population shifts to metropolitan areas, high land costs, and the usage of
lightweight materials. These structures have little damping. This raises the risk of
failure during ground motion caused by earthquakes and also affects the
serviceability during wind vibrations. Slosh Tanks are relatively new approach to
decrease seismic response among the many methods that are currently available to
lessen the reaction of a structure under dynamic loading.

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 D. Methods of Slosh Tank and their Advantages
E. Research Gap
F. Synthesis of Reviewed Literature and Studies

References:

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