Investigation of nonlinear sloshing effects in seismically excited tanks

Nonlinear behavior of liquid sloshing inside a partially filled rectangular tank is investigated. The nonlinearity in the numerical modeling of the liquid sloshing originates from the nonlinear terms of the governing equations of the fluid flow and the liquid free surface motion as a not known boundary condition. The numerical simulations are performed for both linear and nonlinear conditions. The computed results using linear conditions are compared with readily available exact solution. In order to verify the results of the nonlinear numerical solution, a series of the shaking table tests on rectangular tank were conducted. Having verified linear and nonlinear numerical models, they are used for computation of near wall sloshing height at a series of real scale tanks (with various dimensions) under the both harmonic and earthquake base excitation. Finally, the nonlinear effects on liquid sloshing modeling are discussed and the practical limitations of the linear solution in evaluating the response of seismically excited liquids are also addressed.

► Nonlinear effects of free surface motion can increase sloshing height.
► The non-linear effects are dominated in the response of wider tanks.
► The nonlinear effects resulted in 35% larger wave height than linear results.
► The non-linear effects under seismic excitations can be intensified even more.
► Seismic design guidelines should consider the sloshing nonlinear effects.