Parametric based study for design of liquid-filled elevated tanks

Abstract

In this study, the dynamic behavior of elevated water tanks is investigated by performing a comprehensive parametric study on conical elevated tanks using the finite element technique. Through this study, a wide range of tank parameters and geometries typically found in practice is considered. To perform this parametric study, a parametric model capable of building any finite element models of a three-dimensional conical elevated tank with varying parameters is developed. As a result of this parametric study, pressure distribution graphs corresponding to both impulsive and convective hydrodynamic pressures can be generated by carrying out spectral analysis. These pressure graphs can be utilized simply in design applications for liquid-filled conical elevated tanks. The accuracy of the proposed pressure graphs is verified by comparing these results with those calculated using the previously verified finite element time-history analysis and also the “current practice”.