Bulging modes of circular bottom plates in rigid cylindrical containers filled with a liquid

In this article the free vibrations of the bottom plate of an otherwise rigid circular cylindrical tank filled with liquid are studied, considering only the bulging modes (when the amplitude of the plate displacement is predominant with respect to that of the free surface). The tank axis is vertical, thus the free liquid surface is orthogonal to the tank axis. The liquid is assumed to be inviscid, and the contribution of the free surface waves to the dynamic pressure on the free liquid surface is neglected. Wet and dry mode shapes of the plate are assumed to be the same, so that the natural frequencies are obtained by using the nondimensionalized added virtual mass incremental (NAVMI) factors and the modal properties of dry plates. This simplifies computations compared to other existing theoretical approaches. NAVMI factors express the nondimensionalized ratio between the reference kinetic energy of the liquid and that of the plate and have the advantage that, due to their nondimensional form, they can be computed once and for all. Numerical results for simply supported and clamped bottom plates, as well as for supported plates with an elastic moment edge constraint are given. For more accurate results, and to exceed the limits of the assumed modes approach, the Rayleigh-Ritz method is applied and results are compared to those obtained by using the NAVMI factors and other existing methods in the literature. (C) 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.