Modeling of floating roof tanks under seismic excitation, accounting for the influence of sealing system and the roof pounding

This paper presents a complete finite element (FE) model of an atmospheric tanks with floating roof and sealing system to analyze its seismic behavior under earthquake excitation, while also exploring simplified modeling approaches for faster assessments. The modeling of atmospheric tanks with floating roofs subjected to earthquakes, focusing on the presence of the mechanical spring seal system and roof-wall pounding, is described. A complete finite element model including the tank, fluid, roof, sealing system, and pounding has been developed using the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) approach in Abaqus. Seismic analyses were performed with different earthquakes. Simplified models were also explored by decoupling the vertical and horizontal roof motion components. Vertical motion was analyzed with a literature model and horizontal motion with a single-degree-of-freedom vibro-impacting system with rigid impact. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the complete FE model in simulating seismic behavior of floating roof tank with sealing system and the use of simplified models for faster, more accurate analyses.