DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF FULLY ANCHORED CIRCULAR CYLINDRICAL LIQUIDS' STORAGE STEEL TANKS USING FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

A vibration analysis of circular cylindrical steel liquid storage tanks anchored to rigid base is conducted. Empty, partially and completely liquid filled tanks are considered as well as tanks composed of two courses using ANSYS 11.0 finite element package. The tank wall is modeled using linear elastic shell finite element and a new method, based on the added mass approach, is developed to model the effect of the contained liquid. In this method the properties of the shell element is modified to include the effect of the contained liquid. The analysis includes four tank case studies which are empty, fully filled with water, and filled with changeable liquid level in addition to study the effect of the variable thickness of tank on the natural frequencies and mode shapes. The results show that the natural frequency of completely filled tall tank may be less by 70.7% than the natural frequency of empty tank. It is also found that a maximum value of natural frequency can be obtained when the lower thick course consists 0.75 of tank height and its thickness is four times that of the upper one. The natural frequencies decrease with the increasing in liquid level for tall tank. The natural frequency of completely filled tank is less by 70.7% than the natural frequency of empty tank.