Stability of elevated liquid‐filled conical tanks under seismic loading, Part I—theory

Conical steel shells are widely used as water containments for elevated tanks. However, the current codes for design of water structures do not specify any procedure for handling the seismic design of such structures. In this paper, a numerical model is developed for studying the stability of liquid‐filled conical tanks subjected to seismic loading. The model involves a previously formulated consistent shell element with geometric and material non‐linearities included. A boundary element formulation is derived to obtain the hydrodynamic pressure resulting from both the horizontal and the vertical components of seismic motion acting on a conical tank which is prevented from rocking. The boundary element formulation leads to a fluid added‐mass matrix which is incorporated with the shell element formulation to perform non‐linear dynamic stability analysis of such tanks subjected to both horizontal and vertical components of ground motion. Although, the formulation was developed for conical vessels, it is general and can be easily modified to study the stability of any liquid‐filled shell of revolution subjected to seismic loading. The accuracy of fluid added‐mass formulation was verified by performing the free vibration analysis of liquid‐filled cylindrical tanks and comparing the results to those available in the literature. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.