Seismic Behavior of Sloped Bottom Tank with Internal Object

Abstract

The sloped bottom tank generates higher sloshing-induced base shear with less liquid mass compared to rectangular tanks. Due to the improved sloshing characteristics, sloped bottom TLD achieves better performance than its conventional flat-bottom counterpart. These improvements in sloshing characteristics are due to the modified tank configuration, which reduces the impulsive liquid mass and results in higher convective participation of liquid mass during sloshing. To further increase the convective characteristics, a sloped bottom tank with internal object is proposed. A velocity potential-oriented finite element model has been adopted for the numerical analysis where a combination of three-node triangular and four-node quadrilateral finite elements is used to discretize the liquid domain. Seismic characteristics of liquid sloshing inside a ground-supported sloped bottom tank with internal object are investigated under six different seismic motions categorized as low-, intermediate-, and high-frequency contents. Also, the influence of the internal object on slosh dynamics is investigated suitably for different heights of the object under all earthquakes considered. The dynamic impulsive and convective components of base shear force and hydrodynamic pressure are quantified successfully. The developed numerical model in this study can be utilized in tuning and designing structures coupled with sloped-bottom TLD.