Numerical study of water tank under blast loading

• Numerical method was adopted to study the water tank under blast loading.
• Water effects in reducing the structural response were studied.
• Boundary effects on the blast resistant performance were studied.

The numerical method was adopted in this paper to study the performance of water tank under blast loading. The established numerical model was verified by comparing with the test results and then utilized to study the effects of water on the response of water tank under blast loading. The numerical results showed that water can significantly reduce the response of water tank under blast loading through reducing the external work. As for the boundary reaction force, although the maximum boundary reaction force was increased by filling in water, the increase in maximum boundary reaction force was less significant as compared to the decrease in response. Besides, the positive duration of boundary reaction force was reduced by filling in water. The simply supported and axially restrained boundary conditions were compared to study their effects on the response of water tank. It was found that the blast resistant performance of axially restrained water tank could be significantly improved as compared to the simply supported water tank. This can be attributed to the increased internal energy and reduced external work by adopting the axially restrained boundary condition.