STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOUR OF LIQUID FILLED STORAGE TANKS OFLARGE CAPACITY PLACED IN SEISMIC ZONES OF HIGH RISK INMEXICO

摘要

This research has focused on the behavior, under seismic conditions, of already existing steel storagetanks of large capacity, located in high risk zones. From the revision of analysis and design criteriaconcerned with thin walls structures, it has been prepared a procedure based on a numeric modelingwhere the mechanic characteristics of the materials and the real geometrical measures have beenconsidered. Numeric analysis by FEM have been used in different conditions: empty tanks vibration, fulltanks where fluid-structure interaction is considered to the case of flexible walls, in order to take intoaccount the pressure distribution of the liquid. To estimate the response, real seismic records originated inthe Mexican Region, have been used. Finally the numerical results obtained of the empty tanks with thosecalculated analytically are compared and it is observed that a good correlation between both approaches.For the results obtained of the fluid-structure interaction models with the selected seismic registry isobserved that given its great dimensions and the rigidity that provides the ring to them in the top part ofthe tanks, the effect of the surge is not very significant due to the fluid system - structure is excited in thefirst seconds, reason why the action of the hydrostatic pressure on the walls of these is sample to bedominant.