Real-Time Prediction of Liquid Sloshing of Oil Storage Tank Based on Earthquake Early Warning

For an efficient patrol to prevent and/or minimize secondary disaster such as fire breakout, diffusion of oil just after an earthquake, we investigated the possibility of real-time prediction of liquid sloshing of oil storage tank based on Earthquake Early Warning (EEW), and also investigated the estimation of volume of overflowed oil from a tank due to large liquid sloshing. As to velocity response spectrum prediction used in predicting liquid sloshing, we constructed the attenuation equation of spectral amplitude for far-field surface waves considering both the seismotectonics and the scaling law of the source characteristics. For estimation of the amount of overflowed oil, we executed experimental studies using a model tank of 7 m in diameter and proposed an empirical equation based on the velocity response spectrum and verified the validity of the formula for the past earthquakes. We applied these equations to the EEW in the 2008 Iwate/Miyagi inland earthquake (M7.2) for Sendai Oil Industrial Complex District, and obtained a good agreement between the predicted and the observed spectrum. Thus, it is expected that the information about the predicted sloshing behavior in a very early stage after a large earthquake using EEW, will be disseminated to person responsible for disaster countermeasures prior to communication congestion.© 2009 ASME