Abstract
Many tanks are installed in ship and marine structures. They are often in contact with inner or outer fluid, like ballast, fuel and cargo tanks. Fatigue damages are sometimes observed in these tanks which seem to be caused by resonance with exciting force of engine and propeller. Vibration characteristics of these thin walled tanks in contact with fluid near engine and propeller are strongly affected by added mass of containing fluid. Therefore it is essentially important to estimate the added mass effect to predict vibration of the tanks. Many authors have studied vibration of cylindrical and rectangular tanks containing fluid. Few research on dynamic interaction among tank walls through fluid are reported in the vibration of rectangular tanks recently. In case of rectangular tanks, structural coupling between adjacent panels and effect of vibration modes of multiple panels on added mass have to be considered. In the previous report, A numerical tool of vibration analysis of a 3-dimensional tank is developed by using finite element method for plates and boundary element method for fluid region. In this paper, the coupling effect between panels of a tank on added mass of containing fluid, the effect of structural constraint between panels on each vibration mode for fluid region and mode characteristics in accordance with changing breadth of the plates are investigated numerically and discussed.