Seismic Response of Asymmetric Rectangular Liquid-Containing Structures

Abstract

A new formulation to investigate the seismic response of symmetric and asymmetric rectangular liquid-containing structures is developed and validated in this paper. The proposed method is based on a substructuring approach, where the flexible liquid-containing structure is modeled using finite elements, while the impulsive effects of the fluid domain are modeled analytically through interaction forces at the fluid-structure interfaces. The technique takes account of geometrical or material asymmetry of the liquid-containing structure, fluid compressibility, and energy dissipation through reservoir-bottom absorption. The formulation is presented in such a way that it can be easily coded into a practical and computationally efficient program and is applied to illustrative examples highlighting the effects of geometrical and material asymmetry on the dynamic responses of liquid-containing structures. The obtained frequency- and time-domain results are successfully validated against advanced finite-element analyses.