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Procedia Engineering 190 (2017) 291 – 295

Structural and Physical Aspects of Construction Engineering

Numerical Experiment of Fluid - Structure - Soil Interaction

Kamila Kotrasováa, Slávka Harabinováa,*, Iveta Hegedüšováa,
Eva Kormaníkováa, Eva Panulinováa
a
ÚIS SvF TUKE, Vysokoškolská 4, 042 00 Košice, Slovakia

Abstract

Ground-supported circular tanks are critical and strategic structures. There structures are used to store a variety of liquids. This
paper provides numerical model on seismic response of fluid - structure - soil interaction. Numerical model on seismic response of
fluid - structure -soil interaction of cylindrical tank was obtained by using of Finite Element Method (FEM). They can also be
fluids, which in case of damage to the tank, can contaminate the ground. Damage or collapse these containers may also be due to
the influence of surrounding aggressive environments or an earthquake. The article also will be described impact aggressive
environment in terms of standards and its impact on the quality of the concrete tank.
© 2017
© 2017TheTheAuthors.
Authors. Published
Published by Elsevier
by Elsevier Ltd. Ltd.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
Peer-review under responsibility of the issue editors.
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of SPACE 2016
Keywords: fluid; tanks; seismic response; soil interaction; environment;

1. Introduction

Ground-supported circular tanks are essential structures in industries and used to store a variety of liquids, e.g.
water for drinking and fire fighting, chemicals, petroleum and liquefied natural gas. It is know that, some of the fluid
tanks are damaged in many earthquakes. Damage or collapse of these containers causes some unwanted events such
as shortage of drinking and utilizing water, uncontrolled fires and spillage of dangerous fluids. In the recent decades,
the importance of fluid-structure-soil interaction (FSI) of dynamic response of key structures such as silos, storage
tanks and also other types of structures have been presented in various studies [9,11-12,14-18,23].
The seismic analysis and design of liquid storage tanks is, due to the high complexity of the problem, in fact, really
complicated task. Number of particular problems should be taken into account, for example: dynamic interaction

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +421 55 602 4178; fax: 055 623 32 19

E-mail address: slavka.harabinova@tuke.sk

1877-7058 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of SPACE 2016
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2017.05.340
292 Kamila Kotrasová et al. / Procedia Engineering 190 (2017) 291 – 295

between contained fluid and tank, sloshing motion of the contained fluid; and dynamic interaction between tank and
sub-soil i.e. soil-structure interaction (SSI). Those belong to wide range of so called fluid structure interactions. The
knowledge of fluid effects acting onto walls and the bottom of containers during an earthquake plays essential role in
reliable and durable design of earthquake resistance structure/facility - tanks [1-8,13,19-21].

2. Numerical Experiment of Fluid/Structure Interactions (FSI)

In the present study, a ground supported cylindrical storage tank, without a fixed or floating roof, is considered.
Tank inner diameter is D = 14 m, height is Hw = 7.25 m and the wall of the container has the uniform thickness 0.25 m.
The base slab of the tanks is 0.4 m. Young’s modulus and the weight of concrete per unit volume are taken as 35000
MPa and 25.5 kN/m3. Poisson ratio of concrete is υ = 0.20. In full tank condition, the tank level is 7 m. The container
is filled with water (H2O) of density density ρw = 1 000 kg/m3. The bulk modulus is B = 2.1 109 N/m2. As the excitation
loading we consider horizontal earthquake load given by the accelerogram of the earthquake in Loma Prieta, California
(18.10.1989). The water filled tank is grounded on fine sub-soil.
Time history analysis for Loma Prieta earthquake was carried out for the tank with full tank condition. The
maximum base shear response of the tank is 1.33 MN. The maximum bending moment under Loma Prieta acceleration
from time history analysis is 6.24 MNm [10,27].
0.2
Absolute Acceleration (g)
0.1
t [s]
0
5 10 15 20 25
-0.1

-0.2

Fig. 1. Accelerogram Loma Prieta, California. Fig. 2. Tank and hydrodynamic pressure of fluid filing.

3. Numerical Experiment of Soil/Structure Interactions (SSI)

The cylindrical tank is founded at depth of 0.5 m below the surface on the circular base with diameter of 7.5 m
with a thickness of 0.5 m.
Previous research the subsoil has been modeled using 5 various types of gravel subsoil - soil group G1 to G5 [4].
Now we selected for soil-structure interaction two types of subsoil: gravelly silt (MG) and gravelly clay (CG). The
concrete tanks have been analyzed on fine soils - group F1 and F2 [10]. The values of the geotechnical parameters of
subsoil are given in the Table 1.
The concrete tanks - water reservoirs - resting on various subsoils have been analyzed. The subsoil has been
modeled using two types of soil and three basic models - load conditions:
1. empty tank - static analysis,
2. water filled tank - static analysis,
3. water filled tank - seismic analysis.
The tank has been verificated according to theories of Limit States I. - the ultimate limit state (ULS) and II. - the
serviceability limit state (SLS) under EC 7. It was computed vertical and horizontal bearing capacity, settlement and
rotation of a footing [11].
The resulting deformation depends on the deformation properties of the subsoil (Table 1) and on the size of the
tensions in the foundation soil - stress in soils (σor) and stress from the external load (σz). Stresses in the soil were
determined according to the theory of elasticity (Boussinesq theory). When computing settlement below the footing
bottom, the first is calculated the stress in the footing bottom and then is determined the overall settlement and rotation
of foundation.
The general approach draws on subdividing the subsoil into layers of a different thickness based on the depth below
the footing bottom or ground surface. Vertical deformation of each layer is then computed - the overall settlement is
 Kamila Kotrasová et al. / Procedia Engineering 190 (2017) 291 – 295 293

then defined as a sum of partial settlements of individual layers within the influence zone (deformations below the
influence zone are either zero or neglected). Equation to compute compression of ith soil layer below foundation having
a thickness h arises from the definition of oedometric modulus Eoed.
The results of numerical solutions are presented in Table 2.

Table 1. The geotechnical parameters of soils.

Properties Symbols Gravelly Silt (MG)-Group F1 Gravelly Clay (CG)-Group F2

Poisson´s ratio υ 0.35 0.35

Unit weight [kN.m-3] J 19.0 19.5
Deformation modulus [MPa] Edef 12 6
Effective stress parameters –cohesion [kPa] cef 8 10
Effective stress parameters – angle of friction [°] φef 29 27

Table 2. Results of assessment ULS and SLS.

Load condition
Subsoil formed of gravelly silt (MG) – Group F1
1 2 3
Design bearing capacity of foundation soil Rd [kPa] 845.37 845.37 693.65
Extreme contact stress σ [kPa] 34.40 91.10 96.11
Horizontal bearing capacity Rdh [kN] 3555.87 8228.27 8191.45
Extreme horizontal force H [kN] 0.0 0.0 1327.0
Foundation settlement [mm] 12.7 60.1 60.1
Depth of influence zone [m] 7.38 13.13 13.13
Max. rotation of foundation - 0.0 0.0 0.535
Max. compress. foundation edge settlement [mm] 4.7 30.2 34.4
Min. compress. foundation edge settlement [mm] 4.7 30.2 26.4

Subsoil formed of gravelly clay (CG) – Group F2

Design bearing capacity of foundation soil Rd [kPa] 672.33 672.33 552.35
Extreme contact stress σ [kPa] 34.40 91.10 96.11
Horizontal bearing capacity Rdh [kN] 3479.50 7732.74 7686.71
Extreme horizontal force H [kN] 0.0 0.0 1327.0
Foundation settlement [mm] 15.2 73.9 73.9
Depth of influence zone [m] 7.23 12.98 12.98
Max. rotation of foundation - 0.0 0.0 0.638
Max. compress. foundation edge settlement [mm] 5.6 37.1 42.1
Min. compress. foundation edge settlement [mm] 5.6 37.1 32.5

Results of assessment ULS and SLS:

Changing the subsoil causes a decrease value of bearing capacity foundation soil (Rd). The extreme contact stress
(σ) for 3. load condition (water filled tank - seismic analysis) is nearly 3 times higher than for 1. load condition (empty
tank).
The extreme horizontal force (H) for 3. load condition (water filled tank - seismic analysis) is 1327 kN.
The settlement of the circular plate calculated for 2. load condition was 5 times higher than for 1. load condition
(for the subsoil which was formed of gravelly silt and also for the subsoil was formed of gravelly clay).
294 Kamila Kotrasová et al. / Procedia Engineering 190 (2017) 291 – 295

If we compare 2. and 3. load condition, it can be seen that the torque effect of seismic loading may cause "lifting"
of the tank edge (for all various subsoils).
Maximum rotation of foundation is growing with the reduction of the subsoil stiffness.

4. The quality of the concrete tank - Aggressive Environment

When designing circular concrete tank structures, materials, namely concrete and steel reinforcement, play an
important role. To secure the structure static function, co-operation of these materials is necessary to such an extent
to prevent the structure from collapsing due to their degradation. Degradation is to a large extent caused by corrosion
of concrete and reinforcement. Corrosion can occur due to an impact of the tank contents and harmful substances in a
macroclimate or subgrade. By means of water, harmful substances get to concrete pores, and water participates in
chemical reactions of subsequent harmful processes as well. An unfavourable impact of these substances onto the
material results in decrease in circular tank service life. They usually include chemical substances, such as carbon
dioxide, chlorides, sulphates and nitrates.
Chloride ions get into concrete pores by capillary elevation. A penetration depth depends on the concrete quality
and the arising chloride corrosion depends on relative humidity.
Sulphate anions, at an increased concentration, induce sulphate corrosion in concrete. The basic assumption is a
presence of dissoluble sulphates and humidity.
Nitrates, very well dissoluble in water, react with calcium hydroxide which causes increasing cement stone porosity
and with the following gradual reaction the solid phase volume significantly increases [24]. The reaction results in
degradation of the cement stone structure.
Carbon dioxide is an important factor in concrete carbonation. It causes a chemical reaction resulting in cement
binder disintegration. Carbonation products include new formations on the surface of and inside the structure, such as
efflorescence and crystals. These new formations result in concrete structure disintegration which subsequently leads
to steel reinforcement corrosion. This leads to a decrease in the tank structure load-bearing function since the steel bar
surface is being covered by its products – hydroxides.
It is necessary to thoroughly consider a concrete mixture composition for tanks. It is inevitable for the design to
include design requirements for tanks with assumed impact of chemically polluted environment. The standard [29]
presents recommendations how to, for instance, eliminate sulphate aggression impact, or to reduce ammonium
aggression, the standard recommends to use silica dust as an additive. It is also inevitable to put emphasis on corrosion
process prevention, namely by corrosive environment treatment, and primary and secondary protection of the tank.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of Slovak Republic and the
Slovak Academy of Sciences under Project VEGA 1/0477/15.

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