Grants and Contributions:

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Title:

Development of a simplified method for hydrodynamic pressures in wall corners and roof in liquid storage tanks

Agreement Number:

EGP

Agreement Value:

$25,000.00

Agreement Date:

Feb 7, 2018 -

Organization:

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Location:

Ontario, CA

Reference Number:

GC-2017-Q4-01279

Agreement Type:

Grant

Report Type:

Grants and Contributions

Additional Information:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

Recipient's Legal Name:

Mohammadian, Abdolmajid (University of Ottawa)

Program:

Engage Grants for universities

Program Purpose:

Liquid Storage Tanks (LST's) are used for storage of drinking water, various industrial liquids such asx000D
Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), oil, petroleum, as well as in the treatment of pulp and paper product wastes asx000D
well as other industrial wastes. The stored materials could also be toxic or flammable, so keeping the tanksx000D
functional and preventing them from damages during and after an earthquake event is important in the designx000D
process. Currently, simplified analytical methods are adopted by design codes in North America for the designx000D
of these tanks. However such methods are only acceptable in tanks with certain aspect ratios where sloshingx000D
waves are linear. For tanks in which non-linearity occurs, the method loses its accuracy. In a design case,x000D
reliable prediction of the forces on the roof and required freeboard is important to prevent failure of the tanks.x000D
Some previous studies show that the hydrodynamic pressure due to the sloshing of the liquid at the sharp tankx000D
corners can be up to three times higher compared to other locations. This pressure can cause significant damagex000D
to the tanks. In the current project, partially filled tanks with and without a roof are excited on a seismicx000D
shaking table. For tanks with a roof, the data is obtained through pressure sensors that are placed at variousx000D
locations on the tank and collecting the pressure data to find the associated pressures at each senor location. Forx000D
roofless tanks, the sloshing height is the parameter of interest. The simulations are also recorded in the form ofx000D
video clips for further investigation of the free surface. For the simulations, the OpenFOAM which is ax000D
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program is used to generate excitations. The results of numerical andx000D
experimental study are used to develop a simplified procedure to calculate the sloshing heights and roofx000D
pressures near the tank corners.