Longitudinal Sloshing Behaviors of Horizontal Cylindrical Liquid Tanks Subjected to Harmonic and Seismic Excitations

Abstract

In the present study, the sloshing behavior of horizontal cylindrical liquid tanks under longitudinal excitation is investigated numerically. Shallow liquid wave theory has been used to derive the equations governing fluid motion. In the numerical model, the effect of shear stress on the bottom of the horizontal cylindrical tank is considered by solution of the Navier – Stokes equations in the longitudinal direction. Numerical results have been validated by approximating the cross-sectional area of ​​a liquid-filled segment to a rectangular cross-section using available numerical and experimental studies on a rectangular tank, which a good conformity is observed. The sloshing behavior of horizontal cylindrical tank fluid has been compared with rectangular tank fluid in terms of maximum wave elevation and force applied to the tank’s lateral wall, under harmonic and seismic excitations. The results show that the force applied to the lateral wall of the cylindrical tank is higher than that of the rectangular tank, in some cases. In addition, the horizontal cylindrical tank can be used as an alternative of the rectangular tank with almost the same volume of water but 26 % less length on average. Finally, the effect of viscosity and density of fluid to the force created on the lateral wall of the horizontal cylindrical tank is investigated. It has been shown that the effect is negligible, so that if the viscosity of the fluid is greatly increased, the horizontal force applied to the tank’s lateral wall decreases slightly.

Keywords

• longitudinal liquid sloshing
• seismic excitation
• horizontal cylindrical tank
• shallow liquid wave theory
• shear stress of liquid tank bottom