Parametric Study of Cylindrical Ground-Supported Water Tanks Under Different Seismic Zones and Different Aspect Ratio

Abstract

Tanks are used for the storage of water and chemicals which may be toxic. The earthquake can cause the failure of any tank and thus may create hazardous situation if stored chemicals are toxic in nature. The tanks are designed against the critical forces likely to act on the tanks and at the same time the design should also be economical. The tanks resting on ground or underground tanks are generally constructed when large storage capacity is required. On the other hand overhead tanks are constructed when the distribution of a stored liquid is required. Tanks may either be rectangular or circular in shape. It has been found that circular tanks are more economical as compared to any other shape. In this paper a circular tank of fixed capacity 500 kL has been analysed by varying the aspect ratio (height/diameter ratio) seismic zone and type of underlying soil. STAAD.pro software used to analyse the water tank models. It has been found that for seismic zone II and III the aspect ratio of 0.6 requires minimum amount of steel whereas for seismic zone IV and V the aspect ratio of 0.45 requires minimum steel. The quantity of concrete required remains the same for all season’s zones. The nature of underlying soil that is soft medium or hard does not have any influence on structural analysis and design of tanks.