Hydroelastic vibration analysis of liquid-contained rectangular tanks

This paper presents a theoretical analysis for the free vibration of rectangular tanks partially filled with an ideal liquid. Wet dynamic displacements of the tanks are approximated by combining the orthogonal polynomials satisfying the boundary conditions, since the rectangular tanks are composed of four rectangular plates. The classical boundary conditions of the tanks at the top and bottom ends are considered, such as clamped, simply supported, and clamped-free boundary conditions. As the facing rectangular plates are assumed to be geometrically and structurally identical, the vibration modes of the facing plates of the tanks can be divided into two categories: symmetric and antisymmetric modes with respect to the planes passing through the center of the tanks and perpendicular to the free liquid surface. The liquid displacement potentials satisfying the Laplace equation and liquid boundary conditions are derived, and the wet dynamic modal functions of a quarter of the tanks can be expanded by the finite Fourier transform for compatibility requirements along the contacting surfaces between the tanks and liquid. An eigenvalue problem is derived using the Rayleigh-Ritz method. Consequently, the wet natural frequencies of the rectangular tanks can be extracted. The proposed analytical method is verified by observing an excellent agreement with three-dimensional finite element analysis results. The effects of the liquid level and boundary condition at the top and bottom edges are investigated.