Development of Numerical Modelling Techniques for a Firefighting Water Tank with an Anti-Wave Plate under Seismic Loads

A structure located in seismic regions must have a resistance capacity based on current seismic design codes and maintain this capacity for its design life. However, the responses of structures to several major earthquakes worldwide over the past decade have demonstrated the inadequacy of current seismic design codes. Thus, there is a need for an accurate method for assessing the strength of structures under seismic loads. Accordingly, this study aimed to numerically review the structural performance of a typical firefighting water tank equipped with an anti-wave plate under seismic loads. Quasi-static and transient structural analysis methods were developed to determine the structural strength of the water tank. In addition, a one-way fluid–structure interaction (FSI) method was developed to analyse the effect of the anti-wave plate on the liquid-sloshing motion in and the structural strength of the water tank. Moreover, convergence tests were performed to aid the development of mesh models and grid models for finite element method and finite volume method analyses, respectively. Subsequently, the structural responses of the water tank were determined via quasi-static, transient, and one-way FSI analyses. Finally, the effectiveness of the anti-wave plate for mitigating the sloshing pressure in the water tank and the structural responses according to the pressure change were analyzed. The commercial software ANSYS Workbench (ver. 2020R2) was used.