EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF CODE PROVISIONS FOR HYDRODYNAMIC WALL PRESSURE OF A RECTANGULAR STORAGE TANK

One of the most important key factors in designing liquid storage tanks is the design of wall thickness to provide sufficient resistance and rigidity against critical loads. The hydrodynamic pressure on tank wall shells is considerable in determination of a tank wall thickness. The motivation for this study is to carry out a wall pressure comparison between experimental tests results and values suggested by the ACI-350 code. This comparison could lead to a better understanding of ACI code provisions. In this regard, a series of experimental tests are conducted using a rectangular liquid tank excited by different earthquake oscillations. The experimental results agree well with those calculated by the code in most cases. The reason of minor deviation in some cases will be discussed and justified.