Experimental study of the sloshing impact loads on 2D rectangular tank

Impact load due to liquid sloshing is a key issue in the structure design of membrane LNG tanks. The load is related to the filling level, oscillation amplitude and period of the tank. For a 2D rectangular tank subject to harmonic sway motions at shallow-water conditions (20% of the tank height) and middle (40% and 60% of the tank height) filling levels, impact loads are investigated by the model tests. The results suggest that the impact loads are prominent at 20% filling level with oscillation frequency f=0.9~1.1f1(f1 is the natural frequency of liquid free surface) and hydraulic jump is observed at f=1.0f1. At middle filling level, impact loads increase with the oscillation amplitude and are analyzed by statistics.