Liquid Sloshing Characteristics of the Cylindrical Storage Tank With Partitions and Wire Mesh Under Seismic Excitations

Liquid storage structures, typically designed with thin walls, are widely used in civil engineering, aerospace, and related fields, such as large LNG tanks, oil transport vessels, and fuel tanks. Liquid sloshing constitutes a critical determinant in the structural integrity assessment of liquid storage tanks, having been the main subject of extensive research in fluid‐structure interaction studies. To better understand the liquid sloshing characteristics of the storage tank, water pressure and wave height sensors were implemented in a shaking table test for quantitative hydrodynamic monitoring. The results show that liquid sloshing exhibits varying responses at different heights, with distinct differences in the time‐history curves of dynamic water pressure and frequency spectra between the bottom and top regions under different seismic wave excitations. The region near the upper liquid layer just below the free surface exhibits the maximum standard deviation and spectral amplitude of dynamic water pressure along the liquid height in the primary vibration direction, particularly under El Centro and Tianjin wave excitations. This indicates that the upper liquid near the free surface experiences larger fluctuations and intensified spectral energy accumulation under seismic excitations. Intense liquid sloshing poses a considerable risk to the stability and safety of these structures, particularly when subjected to external excitations. Such disturbances can lead to fluctuations in sloshing height and dynamic water pressure, which eventually jeopardize structural integrity. To address this challenge, a novel composite partition structure incorporating wire mesh is proposed to reduce these effects. Comparative analysis of parameters of dynamic water pressure, wavenumber, and standard deviation is conducted to compare following the implementation of the measures. Experimental results reveal that the partitions and wire mesh suppress liquid sloshing, effectively reducing the maximum wave height by 20%–50%. As the mesh spacing decreases, the damping effect is further enhanced, leading to greater sloshing suppression efficiency, but it amplifies localized high‐frequency disturbances. In addition, the results of the original tank were in excellent agreement with those from the three‐dimensional numerical simulation analysis.