Seismic behavior of buried storage tanks considering fluid-structure and soil-structure interaction

In this study, seismic behavior of buried storage tanks to earthquake excitation is studied. Few studies have been done on the seismic behavior of underground storage tanks considering the fluid structure as well as soil structure interaction. The tank structure is a concrete rectangular, fully buried in soil, and partially filled with. Twelve models have been studied in which the soil type varies from soft to hard, for two various burial depths. The system is modeled using finite element method which Plane strain solid elements are adapted to model three mediums. The fluid-structure interaction is considered by modeling water as displacement-based Lagrangian approximation. Materials are assumed as linear elastic and the contact of the soil and walls is defined with the link element to simulate unilateral contact–friction behavior between dry sand and concrete walls. Then, nonlinear dynamic analysis is performed representing nonlinear contact conditions of the two surfaces. Finally, some responses of the model such as liquid sloshing, hydrodynamic pressure on the tank walls and soil pressure are discussed and the results are compared.

Keywords:

Underground Liquid Storage tanks , Fluid-Structure interaction , Solid-Structure interaction , Finite Element model