Abstract Summary
Liquid storage tanks are an integral part of any industry, including chemical, gas, or nuclear and are the fundamental civil engineering structure employed in public utility for various functions, including the delivery of drinking water and the suppression of fires. Storage tanks are more prone to sustain severe damage during seismic excitations due to their strong base shear response and large convective displacement. This study proposes a hybrid control strategy with a clutched inerter (CID) for the seismic protection of a base-isolated (BI) liquid storage tank. A bilinear lead rubber bearing (LRB) and a linear rubber bearing (RB) are used as isolation devices, whilst a CID connects the rubber bearings to the ground through an inerter. Seven actual earthquake ground motions are considered. Furthermore, a MATLAB code using the State-Space approach is developed to examine the broad and slender BI tank's seismic performance to determine the inerter system's efficiency. A parametric analysis has been performed to assess the impact of the CID's inertance mass ratio and aspect ratio of the tank on the peak bearing and sloshing displacement, peak sloshing acceleration, and peak normalized base shear responses. Based on the response of time history analysis performed under seven ground motion records, the proposed hybrid control strategy shows a reduction in the bearing displacement response and meets the required demands of sloshing displacement. The inertance mass ratio of the CID is optimum when the total base shear response is significantly reduced. The CID, however, adds to the sloshing acceleration response, which can be offset by the tank's improved total base shear response and reduced isolation displacement.
