Modelling of sloped and curved bottom sloshing tanks with screens using smoothed particle hydrodynamics

A flat bottom tank geometry has traditionally been used for tuned liquid dampers (TLDs) to control the resonant response of tall buildings. However, the bottom geometry may be dictated by building space availability. Different bottom geometries have been proposed to conform to strict floor plans. Previous studies focused on modelling TLDs with irregular bottom geometries have limitations on excitation amplitudes or are computationally expensive. As structures may encounter extreme loading events, understanding the response of TLDs under large excitation amplitudes is imperative. A numerical model capable of accurately capturing the complex response of TLDs with irregular bottom geometries equipped with screens at high amplitude excitations with practical computational power requirements is currently unavailable. This study develops an incompressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics model to simulate any tank bottom geometry with screens macroscopically without the numerical limitations of existing models. The base model is modified to simulate any tank bottom geometry SPH results are found to be in good agreement with existing numerical models at shallow fluid depths and low excitation amplitudes. The response of different tank bottom geometries is investigated under large amplitude harmonic excitation, revealing that curved bottom tanks have higher sloshing response amplitude than sloped and flat bottom tanks. Overall, it was found that the model did not encounter any limitations over the range of parameters considered and, as such, can efficiently (computationally) model TLDs with different tank bottom geometries over a wide range of excitation amplitudes.