Author(s)

G. Perillo & M. Rizzone

Abstract

Suitable response of hydraulic structures to seismic actions represents an important requirement in order to organise aid in the areas damaged by seismic events; therefore accurate assessment of hydrodynamic loads acting on the structure represents the first step in a correct anti-seismic structural design. With particular reference to water storage tanks, the problem of hydrodynamic actions exerted by an earthquake on the walls of a tank has been investigated, whether fully or partially buried below ground and considered to be non-deformable (‘rigid’ scheme), and the tank’s tendency to deform has been analysed, taking into account the liquid-shell interaction (‘elastic’ scheme) and highlighting its sometimes significant influence on the entity of hydrodynamic actions. The aim of this research project is to analyse elevated storage tanks in seismic areas, comprising a tank mounted on a single vertical column. Applying the same considerations made for ‘ground-based’ tanks to such a scheme is immediately possible because the liquid mass fully enters the energy balance of the structural system and its quantity does not vary over time and formal variations in the hydraulic profile over time do not entail substantial modifications in the system’s overall response. Analysis of the dynamic response of elevated tanks, performed by means of the mathematical model described and limited to concrete structural systems with a circular tank, has shown that the entity of hydrodynamic motions can be significant and, furthermore, noticeably greater than those for equally sized tanks on the ground. Keywords: hydrodynamic effects, seismic motions, elevated storage tanks.

Keywords

hydrodynamic effects, seismic motions, elevated storage tanks