Simplified Uplift Analysis of Unanchored Cylindrical Tanks

by David T. Lau, Carleton Univ, Ottawa, Canada,
X. Zeng, Carleton Univ, Ottawa, Canada,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Lifeline Earthquake Engineering

Abstract:

Seismic tank damage has been reported in almost every major earthquake in the past, sometimes with serious environmental ramifications, thus raising concerns about the safety of these structures. In earlier studies, the dynamic uplift mechanism of unanchored cylindrical tanks have been investigated using the static tilt uplift model. A brief discussion on the static tilt uplift analysis procedure is presented. However, this rigorous formulation requires considerable amount of computational effort, and thus it is not very effective to implement this model to analyze the dynamic uplift problem. This paper presents a simplified model of the uplift mechanism, based on the adoption of a set of simplified displacement shape functions in the discretization process. The derivation and selection criteria of this simplified set of shape functions are presented. These shape functions are very effective in capturing all the important characteristics of the uplift mechanism. Some preliminary results using the simplified shape functions for static tilt uplift analysis are presented.

Subject Headings: Uplifting behavior | Cylindrical tanks | Storage tanks | Shell structures | Earthquakes | Seismic tests | Seismic effects

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