Mohammad Ali Goudarzi

Seismic Analysis of Hydrodynamic Sloshing Force on Storage Tank Roofs

Large-amplitude sloshing caused by earthquakes may result in liquid impact on the roof of liquid storage tanks. The motivation for this study is better understanding of the sloshing-induced impact via experimental investigations and establishing an analytical approach for evaluation of the maximum impact force on tank roofs. The experimental tests are carried out using a rectangular liquid tank excited by harmonic oscillations. The effects of geometric parameters such as the tank aspect ratio, excitation amplitude and freeboard on maximum liquid impact force are investigated by conducting 140 tests. Based on the conservation of fluid momentum, an analytical solution is developed to model sloshing impact force on tank roofs. The analytical solution parameters are calibrated using the experimental measurements. Finally, the analytical scheme is extended for a systematic process to evaluate the hydrodynamic and hydrostatic components of impact forces for earthquake engineering application.

Seismic Behavior of a Single Deck Floating Roof Due to Second Sloshing Mode

Second mode sloshing motion induces the vertical out-of-plane deformation of deck plate in single deck floating roof (FR) cylindrical storage tanks. This vertical deformation tends to shrink the deck plate in horizontal direction, causing elliptical deformation of pontoon. In order to evaluate seismic stress caused by the second sloshing mode, the relation between out-of-plane vertical deformation of deck plate and the radial shrinkage of pontoon is required. In this study, a simple analytical approach is proposed for calculating the shrinkage of the pontoon. The numerical analysis is also performed for five tanks with various dimensions to assess the effectiveness of introduced new method. The accuracy of proposed formulation is confirmed by comparing its results with the results of both numerical analysis and available experimental measurements. Despite existing empirical formula, geometric characteristics of considered tanks are involved in proposed formulation and it is shown that final relationship could be utilized for various ranges of tank dimensions without scaling or unit limitation. It is also found from the results of numerical analysis that the dynamic characteristics of sloshing modes are not considerably affected by the presence of floating roof.

Seismic Design of a Double Deck Floating Roof Type Used for Liquid Storage Tanks

Sloshing response of a cylindrical liquid storage tank with the double deck type floating roof (DDFR) subjected to seismic excitation is considered in this paper. The aim of the paper is to clarify the significant parameters that should be considered in the seismic design of a DDFR and proposing a practical seismic design procedure for evaluating the dynamic stresses inside a DDFR. A numerical method including fluid–structure interaction and the geometry details of a DDFR tank are established. The geometric nonlinear effects on the seismic behavior of the DDFR as well as the accuracy of common analytical solution suggested in the literature are examined by the numerical model. The numerical results show that the geometric nonlinear effects can considerably reduce the seismic stress in DDFR, but have no significant effect on the liquid hydrodynamic pressure exerted on the DDFR and the roofs vertical displacement. It is also revealed that not only the general displacement of DDFR but also the local effects of liquid hydrodynamic pressure on the bottom plate should be considered for seismic design of a DDFR. Finally, a design procedure for the evaluation of dynamic stress in the DDFR due to the seismic loads is proposed and discussed.

New Design Method to Evaluate the Seismic Stress of Single Deck Floating Roof for Storage Tanks

Liquid sloshing causes severe damage to the floating roofs of storage tanks. Liquid–roof interaction imposes a complicated distribution of out-of-plane deformation in a single deck floating roof (SDFR), which is the primary source of high seismic stress. This paper proposes a new seismic design procedure for evaluating the seismic stress of an SDFR. This method revises the relationship between vertical deformation of the deck plate and the radial shrinkage of the pontoon, and estimates the nonlinear behavior of the free surface. Moreover, the attenuation of the sloshing wave height attributable to the presence of an SDFR is analytically evaluated. A design flowchart according to the new method is suggested. This method emphasizes the nonlinear effects of large amplitude wave for smaller capacity tanks, and the seismic stress caused by the second sloshing mode for broad tanks.