Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis of Elevated Circular Water Tank

Water storage tanks play a vital role in the society for the supply of water. Seismic study of elevated water tank under partially filled condition is a complex problem. The main purpose of the study is to perceive the seismic behavior of elevated reinforced concrete water tank in earthquake prone areas. For analysis, elevated circular water tank has been chosen because, due to high elevation and concentration of huge mass, elevated water tanks are more susceptible to horizontal accelerations and become more critical requiring a rigorous study. Various hydrodynamic pressures on the wall and base slab of water tank have been computed by using commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) package. For partially filled condition, different water heights have been taken in to consideration for the analysis to study the effect of sloshing on the roof and walls of the water tank. Multiphase and Volume of Fluid (VOF) method were used to analyze the partially filled tank. Comparison has been made between different tank condition i.e. partially filled condition, full tank condition and empty tank condition under seismic forces in the workbench platform of ANSYS 18.