Impact of earthquake direction and liquid sloshing on column supported tank

Abstract

The finite element method is adopted to obtain the seismic responses of column supported tank including the anchored one and the resilient one by ANSYS. The dynamic behaviors are discussed under earthquakes from different directions, named 0° and 45°. And then the liquid sloshing is illustrated to observe its impact on both tanks. The liquid is modeled by two different methods with fluid element and solid element to make the structure with and without the liquid sloshing effect. The uplift in the resilient tank is built by contact algorithm to achieve the vertical movement of the column system in positive direction. The parameters studied are the displacement of the structure and the liquid, the stress distribution along the height of the wall, the stress level of walls and columns, the base shear and the overturning moment, the uplift displacement. The results show that 0° earthquake amplifies the seismic responses of both tanks in most cases, which should be paid attention to in engineering. The liquid sloshing effect is generally unfavorable to the anchored tank but helpful to anti-seismic performances of the resilient tank. However, the resilient tank has better dynamic properties and will not suffer plastic failure in the main structure even under extremely rare earthquake except for replaceable dampers.