Introducing Padded Wall to Reduce Sloshing Induced Wall Pressure in Water Storage Tanks

Sloshing due to ground motion develops large pressure on the walls of water retaining tanks. This paper evaluates the efficacy of padded walls on the reduction of sloshing effects in rectangular water storage tanks subjected to ground motion. An analytical solution based on velocity potential function is provided to obtain the response of  rigid and padded wall tanks in terms of the wave elevation, maximum pressure on the tank wall and FFT spectrum of pressure on the water surface. In the proposed method, the boundary condition on the tank wall is kinetic representing pressure distribution on the tank walls against the usual methods with kinematic boundary condition only. The fluid is assumed to be inviscid, incompressible, and irrotational. Tanks with and without padded walls are evaluated under different types of ground motions classified as near source and far-field records. The results show noteworthy effect of the padded wall on reduction of above-mentioned sloshing responses.