lnt, Z Meclt $ci. Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 47-59, 1982 0020-74031821010047-13503.

00/0
Printed in Great Britain. Pergamon Press Ltd.

FREE VIBRATION ANALYSIS OF CYLINDRICAL

LIQUID STORAGE TANKS

T. BALENDRA, K. K. ANG, P. PARAMASIVAMand S. L. LEE

Department of Civil Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore

(Received 24 April 1981)

Summary--Cylindrical liquid storage tanks anchored to rigid base slabs are considered. By
using finite elements for both liquid and tankwall, the natural frequencies of the coupled
system are presented in graphical form for various tank dimensions, liquid depths and wall
thicknesses. From the mode shapes it is concluded that during coupled vibration a large core
of liquid is practically unaffected.

INTRODUCTION
Cylindrical liquid storage containers which are anchored to rigid base slabs are
considered. The tanks are partially or completely filled with an invisid, incom-
pressible liquid. Finite elements are used to discretize both the tank wall, treated as
thin shell, and liquid. The governing equations of motion of liquid and shell are
rearranged to form symmetric system matrices for the coupled liquid-shell system and
the resulting eigenvalue problem is solved by the subspace iteration method to
determine both the low frequencies associated with the liquid sloshing modes and high
frequencies associated with the coupled vibration modes.

GOVERNING EQUATIONS OF MOTION

A cylindrical tank of radius R height H and wall thickness h, supported on a rigid base slab as shown in
Fig. 1 is considered. The tank is filled to a height Hf with a liquid of mass density ~. The liquid in the tank
is assumed to be homogeneous, incompressible, invisid and irrotational. Thus the governing field equation
in the absence of any sources, sinks or cavities, can be expressed as

V2p(r, 0, z) = 0 (1)

in which V2 is the Laplace operator in cylindrical coordinates and P the liquid dynamic pressure at
coordinates (r, 0, z).
For small amplitude liquid motion, neglecting the velocity term in the Bernoulli equation leads to

g z +P~ P+ ,~ + ~~- = 0 (2)

in which $ is the velocity potential, t the time, P, the static pressure, g the acceleration due to gravity, and
z the axial coordinate of any point in the liquid with the origin at the free surface. For z measured positive
upwards from the liquid free surface, equation (2) reduces to

P +o$
~-=0. (3)

Boundary conditions
The boundary conditions on the liquid are.
(1) At the liquid free surface, the linearized free surface condition takes the form [1]

\[O-~Ot
~ + g az),.o = 0 (4)

which, in view of equation (3), can be expressed as

1 02P aP\
Vi~ + ~ ; ) = o. (5)

If sloshing is ignored, then instead of equation (5), the following equation holds

(V),-o --0. (6)

47
48 T. BALENDRA,K. K. An(;, P. PARAMASIVAMand S. L. LEE

-r-

.'e-

i
---E ,~)Jf
I

Hfi ?,

- 0= 0
~--Ricjid slab
FIG. 1. Coupled liquid, elastic shell system.

(2) At the tank bottom, the velocity component of liquid normal to the rigid base slab is zero. Thus we
have

(7)

which, in view of equation (3), can be written as

(3) At the liquid-tank wall interface, the velocity of liquid normal to the tank must be the same as the
radial velocity of the shell. Thus

(o~ aw~
- -O-t/,=R = 0 (9)

where w is the radial displacement at any point on the tank wall. In view of equation (3), equation (9) takes
the form

Ot2 Pt Or],=R =0" (10)

Idealization of tank wall

The tank wall is idealized as thin elastic shell, which is discretized into ring elements developed by
Stricldin et al. [2]. The displacements in the meridional, circumferential and radial directions are represented
by cubic polynomials, in terms of meridional distance s along the element, and a Fourier series in the
circumferential angle, 0, as follows[3]:

u(O, z) = ~ a . ( z ) cos mO
m

= ~ (aT + a"]s + a"~s(s - I) + aTs2(s - I)) cos mO

m

v(O, z) = ~ ~m(z) sin mO

m

= ~ , (a'~ + a'~s + a'~s(s - l) + aTs2(s - I)) sin mO

m

w(O, z) = ~ ~'M(z)cos mO
m

= ~ (a~ + a g s + aTis 2 + a ~ s 3) cos mO (11)

m

in which a]' to a ~ are the generalized coefficients corresponding to the ruth circumferential harmonic
number, I the length of the element in the meridional direction and am, ~,, and ~'m are the displacement
amplitudes. By static condensation[4], four degrees of freedom are eliminated thereby yielding a (8 × 8)
element stiffness matrix for nodal displacements in meridional, circumferential and radial directions and
slope of the generator (d~/dz).
 Free vibration analysis of cylindrical liquid storage tanks 49

Idealization of liquid
The finite element matrix equation for the liquid can be derived by the application of Hamilton's
variational principle [5, 6]. ff damping is neglected, the functional pertinent to the governing field equation
given by equation (1) and the boundary conditions expressed in equations (5), (8) and (10), can be written
as [7]

- ~ / r a s j dt, (12)

where V is the liquid volume, F the free surface and ~ the liquid-tank interface.
The liquid in the cylindrical tank is discretized into annular elements of rectangular cross section[8, 9].
These elements may be considered to be formed from the intersection of concentric annular cylindrical
surfaces with a set of horizontal planes. The intersection of these surfaces with the planes gives rise to
nodal circles as shown in Fig. 2. The liquid dynamic pressure P is expanded in a Fourier series in the
circumferential angle 0, viz.

P(r, o, z) = Y. ~.(~,,O, z) cos mO (13)

m

in which /5.(r,O, z) is the amplitude of the dynamic pressure corresponding to the ruth circumferential
harmonic number. At any point in the 0 = 0 plane, P,(r, O, z) is described in terms of nodal pressures and a
linear variation of pressure in r and z directions is assumed.
The finite element matrix equation of the liquid is obtained by minimizing the functional in equation (12)
and the result is

[Mt]~} + [Kl]{p} + [S]{/j} = {0} (14)

where [M/] and [K/] are the assembled mass and stiffness matrices of the liquid, [S] the coupling force
matrix, {p} the assembled liquid nodal pressure vector, and {q} the assembled generalized nodal displace-
ment vector of the shell.
In the absence of damping, the equations of motion of elastic shell when subjected to nodal forces due
to liquid dynamic pressure take the form [6]

[M]{/~}+ [K]{q} - [S]T{p} = {0} (15)

in which [M] and [K] are the mass and stiffness matrices of the shell, generated by utilizing the computer
code SAMMSOR II [10], which utilizes the ring element described in Ref. [2], and {/j} the generalized nodal
accelerations.
Thus, the governing equations of motion of the coupled liquid-elastic system are given by equations (14)
and (15). These two equations can be combined into a .single matrix equation as

-s;] o]{,}={o} 0

FREQUENCIES OF COUPLED LIQUID-ELASTIC SYSTEM

The system matrices in equation (16) are non symmetric, thus extraction of eigenvalues and the
corresponding eigenvectors becomes extremely difficult particularly when very large size matrices are
involved. Due to this serious numerical difficulty, the sloshing effect was neglected in Refs. [7-9, 11]. In the
present investigation, the sloshing effect is retained and symmetric system matrices for the determination of
frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes of the coupled system are obtained as described below.
From row 1 of equation (16), we have
{/j} = - ([ M]-'[ K]{ q} - [M]-'[ S]T {p }). (17)

~Z
-----t-'--- ~ Nodal
i~ Circles

FIG. 2. Discretization of liquid.

50 T. BALENDRA,K. K. ANG, P. PARAMASIVAMand S. L. LEE

Substituting equation (12) into row 2 of equation (16) leads to

- [SM-tKI{q} + [K f + SM-~Srl{p} + [Mt]{/~}= {0} (18)

and pre-multiplying row I of equation (16) by [KM -~] yields
[K M - I K]{ q} - [K M - 1 S r ]{p } + [K]{~} = {0}. (19)

Now by combining equation~ (18) and (19), the following matrix equation is obtained
KM-IK - KM-ISr 1 ~ 0
{,"}+[0
Hence, if ~o. denotes the nth natural frequency of the coupled system and {¢,} the corresponding mode
shape of the vector {q }, equation (20) becomes

[Kl{¢a}- ~Oa2[/~/]{~b.}= {0} (21)

where

- SM-1K K t + SM-ISrJ
0]. (22)

The matrices [/~] and [~/], as expressed in equation (22) are symmetric. Consequently, the deter-
mination of natural frequencies and the corresponding mode shapes from equation (21) is much simpler
than from equation (16) and hence, the former is used to obtain the low frequencies associated with the
sloshing of liquid as well as the high frequencies of the coupled vibrations of liquid and shell.
If the sloshing effect is neglected, then the liquid mass matrix [M/] corresponding to the free surface
potential energy vanishes. In which case, equation (16) simplifies into

{p} = - [KII-'[S]{O} (23)

[Kl{q} + [M + SrKi'S]{i~} = {0}. (24)

Equation (24) is similar to a standard free vibration equation of an empty tank, except that the mass matrix
is now augmented by an "added mass matrix" which represents the effect of the contained liquid.
In the case of rigid tanks, the displacement vector {q} is zero. Hence, equation (16) reduces to

[Ktl{P} + [Mtl{/i} = {0} (25)

which represents the sloshing motion of liquid in rigid tanks. As the sloshing motion of liquid is dominated
by oscillations of much longer periods than those characterizing the vibrations of the tank, the flexibility of
the tank wall cannot have any material influence on the sloshing motion. Thus, the sloshing modes of liquid
in flexible tanks can be obtained from equation (25) without much appreciable error.

Solution of eigenvalue problem

Several solution techniques exist for the solution of an eigenvalue problem. However, in the selection of
a suitable method, several factors need to be considered. These are the characteristics of [~] and [M] and
primarily on the order and bandwidths of the matrices as well as the number of eigenvalues and
eigenvectors required. In the eigenproblem stated in equation (21), the matrix [~] is symmetric and positive
definite. Although it is not banded, advantage can still be taken of the many zero elements present to save
computer storage as well as to reduce solution time. Matrix [2¢/] is symmetric, banded and not positive
definite. In view of these characteristics, the subspace iteration method [12, 13] would be most appropriate
and is thus used. Furthermore, this algorithm is very effective in the calculation of the lowest eigenvalues
and eigenvectors of systems with large bandwidths.
Natural frequencies of the coupled liquid-elastic system occupy two widely separated ranges. At one
extreme, there are the low frequency sloshing modes and at the other, the high frequency coupled vibration
modes of the elastic shell and the contained liquid. These frequencies can be determined by using either
equation (21) alone or both equations (24) and (25). This is illustrated later by an example.
Sloshing frequencies of liquid
An analytical expression for the nth sloshing frequency of liquid in cylindrical tanks, is given in Refs.
[14, 15] as
oJ~= g/RAa tanh (AaH~R) (26)
in which the values of A,, corresponding to the first circumferential harmonic, are obtained from the
following equation

Y;(~.),= o. (27)
 Free vibration analysis of cylindrical liquid storage tanks 51

In particular,

J[1 = 1.8412; A2 = 5.3314; A3 = 8.5363; A4 = 11.7060. (28)

Sloshing frequencies obtained from equation (21) for various values of a = Ht/R, are found to be in
good agreement with those computed from equation (26). This is illustrated in Fig. 3 for the first two
sloshing modes of the first circumferential harmonic (m = 1).

Coupled vibration frequencies

The coupled vibration frequencies evaluated from equation (21) for water-filled steel tanks, ¢Uo., are
normalized with respect to ~o*n, the frequencies of a fiexural beam of length H 1, moment of inertia I = ~rR3h
and mass per unit length rfi = 2~rRhp + 7rR2pf. These are given by

(29)
Hr
aZ ~/(-~-) H I ~/ 2p 1. (0~R~)
in which E and p are the modulus of elasticity and density of steel and the numerical values of a, depend
on the type of end support conditions of the beam, which are assumed to be identical to those of the tank.
Thus for tanks which are clamped at the base and free at the top,

al = 1,875, a2 = 4-694, a3 = 7.855, a4 = 10-996 (30)

and for tanks which are clamped at both ends,

al = 4.730, a2 = 7.853, a3 = 10-996, a4 = 14.137. (31)

Results of the fundamental coupled vibration frequencies of clamped-free water-filled steel tanks,
normalized in this way, are compared in Fig. 4 with the results presented by Veletsos and Yang[15] for
various values of a with 13 = (Hi/H) = 1.0 and ~"= hlR = 0.001. Both results, as can be seen from the plots
drawn, are found to be in excellent agreement. Results of the first four coupled vibration frequencies
corresponding to the first harmonic, are plotted as functions of ,~ in Figs. 5--7 for several values of the

1.4 "- \ z'_ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3

Mode 2 ode 1
1.2 2.2

...... Proposed Method

1.C Equation (26) Z.!

I I
i z 3 F °
Fro. 3. Comparison of sloshing frequencies of first two modes for m = 1.

1.0

0.6 ,'

~J~ 0. ' /"/

0.2 .... Proposed Method

i0 Velctsos
(Ret 15 )
and Yang

FIG. 4. Comparison of fundamental natural frequencies of clamped-free steel tanks for

fl = 1.0, I- = 0-001 and m = 1.
1.0 J
MODE NO. 1 MODE NO 3 .~i"
0-3
0.8
.~:~ -- p=o.,s 0.2
~.i ~ . . ~
LU'o3
O.t ~p=o.~o t;0
>
~/ 0.1
r-.

o.,s
0 I I

O.l
~"~~'-p= 0-2=. MODE NQ 4 >
Z
p=0.TS/

0.ZO >
0 I I i I p 1o , , ~ / . 7
O.E
MODE NO. 2
>
0.E
u,ro,
0-4
0 ,!(
//7--
m
0-i
04)!

1 2 o<. 3 4 5 0 1 2 o( 3 4 5

FIG. 5. First four natural frequencies of water filled clamped-free steel tanks for ~-= 0.001 and
m--l.
 1.0 ~ NOt klX~ NQ3

p =1. . +- 0.3 El =1.0

O, . ~ / " ' ~ I B =O.TS

#,s . ..=....=...=...---- 0.2 d J"
0,6 -'~"/ . ~ i ""- ""-
USo3 ~
,: ~-.__ p= o.so
uso~
O.l <.
l.U'~+ =0.5
t~
0.4 '" p=0.25 o
¢t

MODE NO. 4
0.,

0 I I i I

MODE NO. 2

0.6 O.l ¢. ¢:=

~o,
o

tzsol
/ /,+/
0'2 00
p=0"25

_
0 0'_
o l 2 o~ :3 4 s o i ~ o~ ~
FIG. 6. First four natural frequencies of water filled clamped-free steel tanks for ~- = 0-005 and
m=l.
 J.O MODE NOI ~oo~ No3 j
o.3 p=l.0~ //."

-d
O-E
ol ..~.:~ _ . ~ -.. I'-
Z

~ "--""--~p. o.25
0.,~
uJo, //. =0-25
~'P -
0.2~ MODE NO 6
7"
°,ps/ C~

I
0.~ p:l.0 /
0/ . . . . . . , i SJ
MODE NO 2 p=o.Ts " / <
0.6
./ ¢0

0-6 o.,o

0.2 / . ~ =v.~,, ...

J i i i --
0 0 I 2 ~ 3 6 5
0 t 2 O( 3 6 5
FIG. 7. First four natural f r e q u e n c i e s of water filled clamped-free steel t a n k s for ~" = 0.01 and
m=l.
 0.6 0.25
MODE M31

0.3 0.20
p =1-0 / ""

0.t5 /,/~'~p.o.Ts .
0-2
.UJoA uaros

0.1 0.10

o/ _ _ I ~ i - - - J~ I 0.05
i MODE NQ2

0
0.20 k4KXE NO. 4
i p= l . ~ - -
p : , - o ~ ~ . . -/" d~
0-15
U-/'o4
4l Q
Ll.ro~
0-10 /~';i/~ "---p=o-so
o~- //'
O-O5
o

O
0 1 2 04 3 4 O 1 2 o< 3 4 5

FIG. 8. First four natural frequencies of water filled clamped-free steel tanks for r = 0.001 and
m=2.
56 T. BALENDRA,K. K. ANG, P. PARAMASIVAMand S. L. LEE

parameters /3 and ~'. As any out of roundness or uplift of the tank during base excitation result in
appearance of higher circumferential harmonic modes [16], coupled vibration frequencies of clamped-free
steel water tanks for m = 2 is presented in Fig. 8. Similar charts for coupled vibration frequencies of steel
water tanks with clamped--clamped boundary conditions can be found in Ref. [17].

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE
A cylindrical steel water tank of radius 12.2 m, height 12.2 m, thickness 12.2 mm and having properties
E = 207 x 103 kN/m 2, v = 0.3, p = 7830 kg/m 3 is considered. The tank is filled with water of mass density,
Pf = 1000 kg/m 3 to a height of 6.1 m. Natural frequencies of the coupled system, obtained from the program
based on equations (21), (24) and (25) are tabulated in columns 1-3 of Table 1 respectively. For this
purpose, the liquid is discretized into 10 equal elements along the radius and 10 equal elements along the
height of the tank, whereas the cylindrical shell is discretized into 10 elements of equal heights below the
water line and 5 elements of equal heights above the water line. It is found that the above discretization
gives the optimum mesh size for accuracy and computer time.
It is seen that the sloshing frequencies corresponding to the 10 surface nodal degrees of freedom of the
liquid, listed in column 1 are almost equal to the sloshing frequencies in a rigid tank, listed in column 3.
Furthermore, these sloshing frequencies compare well with those given in column 4, obtained from the
analytical expression given in equation (26). The remaining 5 values in column 1 are the coupled vibration
frequencies. These are almost identical to the coupled vibration frequencies listed in column 2, obtained by
neglecting the free surface boundary condition.
Computer plots of free vibration mode shapes associated with the first 3 sloshing modes and first 3
coupled vibration modes are presented in Figs. 9 and 10 respectively. Shown in these plots are the mode
shapes of the heightwise and radial variation of liquid pressure as well as mode shapes of the shell radial
displacements. As can be seen from these plots, the effects of sloshing, particularly of the higher modes, are
basically concentrated near the free surface whereas the effects due to coupled vibrations are appreciable
near the tank wall. The latter indicates that a large core of liquid is practically unaffected during coupled
vibration.
CONCLUSIONS
The natural frequencies of cylindrical liquid storage tanks anchored at the base
can be readily obtained from the charts presented herein, for various circumferential
harmonics. Frequencies associated with higher harmonics are useful for the study on
the influence of out of roundness of the tank or uplift at the foundation. From the
mode shapes presented it is seen that (1) the sloshing effects are concentrated near the
free surface and (2) during coupled vibration a large core of liquid is practically
unaffected.

TABLE 1. NATURALFREQUENCIES(HERTZ) OF THE COUPLEDSYSTEM(R = 12.2 m, H = 12.2 m AND

H~ = 6.1 m)

Node Equatton (21) Equatton (24) Equat|on (25) Equatton (26)

No.

1 0.16470 0.16475 O. 165

2 0.32893 0.32895 O.327

3 0.42229 0.42230 0.415

"~ 4 0.50218 0.50219

g
u.~ 5 0.57745 0.57747
6 0.65154 0.65155

7 0.72522 0.72524
8 0.79563 0.79565
9 0.85386 0.85388
10 0.88456 0.88458

11 9.64375 9.639120
~~ 12 17.61110 17.57810
13 24.00300 23.98140
1, 29.5,760 29.55810
15 35.60210 35.53720
 Free vibration analysis of cylindrical liquid storage tanks 57

I
i i I o

~ ~ ~ . . . . . . . . .

! __--..d ~ -- ---..4 - - ~ - - ~ "

I I I

i z
' 4- 1- . . . . . . .

(a) MODE I
....... Liquid pressure

,[- °_w- - - - - ~ .

// /.//] -

(b) MODE 2

t
J

(c) MODE 3
t
FIG. 9. Sloshing mode shapes.
58 'F. BAI.F'NDRA, K. K. ANG, P. PARAMASIVAMand S. L. LEE

i¢

I
I--

(a) MODE I
....... l~quld pressure
radial displacement of the shell

q: ,¢

~ ~ -/~,,

~;i ii~iZi2 -ilil-i i iT~_ !

i i
i
//~[////-/////// /7////./ I 7 - ,7 - ~ : • 7~ ~ T ~ T X W 7 7 7 7

(b) MODE 2

/'"!
b
I

(c) MODE 3

Fro. 10. Coupled vibration mode shapes.

 Free vibration analysis of cylindrical liquid storage tanks 59

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2. J.A. STRICKLIN,D. R. NAVARATNAand T. H. H. PIAN,Improvement on the analysis of shells of revolution
by the matrix displacement method. AIAA. J. 4, 2069 (1966).
3. P. M. MEBANE, An improved shell of revolution element utilising cubic displacement functions, M.
Engng Thesis, Texas A & M Univ., Texas (1970).
4. T. H. H. PLAN,Derivation of element stiffness matrices. AIAA. Z 2, 576 (1964).
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finite element method. Research Rep., Department of Civil Engineering, University of Massachusetts,
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9. T. BALENDRAand W. A. NASH, Seismic analysis of a cylindrical liquid storage tank with a dome by the
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10. J. R. TILLERSONand W. E. HAISLER,SAMMSOR-II--A finite element program to determine stiffness
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Int. Con[. on Finite Element Methods, p. 365. University of New South Wales, Australia (1979).
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13. K. J. BATHE and E. L. WILSON, Large eigenvalue problems in dynamic analysis. J. Engng Mech. Div.,
ASCE 98, 1471 (1972).
14. M. ASLAMet al., Earthquake sloshing in annular and cylindrical tanks../. Engng Mech. Div. ASCE 105,
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Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, California (1976).
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