Abstract
The seismic design of water tanks for fire protection is important to prevent secondary earthquake damages due to fires. In this study, the seismic performance of stainless steel water tanks was evaluated considering both static and dynamic water pressure effects, and the influence of different panel shapes was investigated through numerical analysis. First, a basic water tank model comprised of flat panels was built, and then water pressure distribution including sloshing effects was evaluated. In the result of structural analysis, many panels of the basic water tank exceeded a specified allowable stress for load combinations including earthquake loads. In order to reduce the bending stress of the panel by increasing the moment of inertial of the panel section, alternative shapes of a truncated quadrangular pyramid were developed. Five water tanks with different alternative panel shapes were built and analyzed for the same load combinations. Based on the results of the numerical analysis, a number of effective aspect ratios were selected and modified to increase economic feasibility through additional analysis and structural safety check.