Seismic Response Reduction of Liquid Storage Tank Using a Passive System Based on Improved Tuned Mass Damper

Abstract

Liquid storage tanks are widely used in the industrial and the agricultural production, the earthquake damage of the liquid storage tanks will not only lead to economic losses, but also may cause environmental pollution, fire and explosion. Considering the fluid–structure interaction, the liquid sloshing and the material nonlinearity, the three-dimensional numerical calculation models of nondamping and tuned mass damper (TMD) liquid storage tanks are established, respectively. The earthquake waves with different characteristics are selected to investigate the dynamic responses of the liquid storage tank, the control effects of the TMD on the seismic responses of the liquid storage tank are analyzed, and the influence law of the change of the spring stiffness on the damping effect is discussed. The results show that the TMD has a significant damping effect on the liquid storage tank, and the element damping has significant influence on the dynamic responses in the subsequent stage of the earthquake action. Under the action of Darfield–New Zealand wave, the damping ratio corresponding to the acceleration of the tank wall is 69.6%. When the element damping is not considered, the small change of the spring stiffness has significant influence on the damping effect, but after the element damping being considered, the influence of the spring stiffness change on the damping effect is small. The TMD provides a high performance system to the damping control of the liquid storage tank under the action of earthquakes with different intensity.