Hydrodynamic Pressure in Storage Tanks Due to Horizontal Acceleration

Abstract

Storing water and providing it with a head are indispensable elements for a constant water supply. At the same time, the safety of the population living near the storage tank must be Safeguarded. A simplified solution to obtain explicit expressions for the pressure distribution and forces against the walls and bottom of elevated rectangular and cylindrical tanks (doubly symmetrical) produced by horizontal acceleration (main component of earthquakes), based on G. W. Housner’s studies is presented. A method for the hydrodynamic analysis of elevated storage tanks is also introduced. The expressions obtained are easy to apply and are particularly important for civil engineers interested in simple solutions and satisfactory results for storage tanks subjected to horizontal accelerations.