Seismic response of liquid-filled tank with baffles

In thispaper, the effects of a rigid baffle on the seismic response of liquid in a rigid cylindrical tank are evaluated. A baffle is an annular plate which supplies a kind of passive control on the effects of ground excitation. The contained liquid is assumed incompressible, inviscid and has irrotational motion. To estimate the seismic response, the method of superposition of modes has been applied. To analyze the rigid tank response, Laplace’s equation is considered as the governing equation of the fluid domain, in both time and frequency domains. The boundary element method (BEM) is employed to evaluate the natural modes of liquid in a cylindrical tank. To gain this goal, the fluid domain is divided into two upper and lower parts partitioned by the baffle. Linearized kinematic and dynamic boundary conditions of the free surface of the contained liquid have been considered.