Axisymmetrical free-vibration analysis of liquid-storage tanks considering the liquid compressibility

In this paper, we address the numerical investigation on the effect of liquid compressibility onto the natural frequency of liquid-filled containers. Traditionally the liquid motion has been treated as an ideal fluid motion. However, from the numerical experiments for the axisymmetrical free-vibration of cylindrical liquid-storage tanks, we found that the relative difference in natural frequencies between ideal and compressible motions becomes remarkable, as the slenderness of tank or the relative liquid-fill height becomes larger. Therefore, in such cases of dynamic systems, the liquid compressibility becomes an important parameter, for the accurate vibration analysis. For the free-vibration analysis of compressible liquid-structure interaction we employed the coupled finite element formulation expressed in terms of the acoustic wave pressure and the structure deformation.