CFD Based Non-Dimensional Characterization of Energy Dissipation Due to Verticle Slosh

Abstract

We present the CFD based non-dimensional characterization of violent slosh induced energy dissipation due a tank under vertical excitation. Experimentally validated CFD is used for this purpose as an ideally suited and versatile tool. It is thus first demonstrated that a weakly compressible VoF based CFD scheme is capable of computing violent slosh induced energy dissipation with high accuracy. The resulting CFD based energy analysis further informs that the main source of energy dissipation during violent slosh is due liquid impact. Next, a functional relationship characterising slosh induced energy dissipation is formulated in terms of fluid physics based non-dimensional numbers. These comprised contact angle and liquid–gas density ratio as well as Reynolds, Weber and Froude numbers. The Froude number is found the most significant in characterising verticle violent slosh induced energy dissipation (in the absence of significant phase change). The validated CFD is consequently employed to develop scaling laws (curve fits) which quantify energy dissipation as a function of the most important fluid physics non-dimensional numbers. These newly developed scaling laws show for the first time that slosh induced energy dissipation may be expressed as a quadratic function of Froude number and as a linear function of liquid–gas density ratio. Based on the aforementioned it is postulated that violent slosh induced energy dissipation may be expressed as a linear function of tank kinetic energy. The article is concluded by demonstrating the practical use of the novel CFD derived non-dimensional scaling laws to infer slosh induced energy dissipation for ideal experiments (with exact fluid physics similarity to the full scale Aircraft) from (non-ideal) slosh experiments.

Sloshing Wing Dynamics - 2nd Year Project Overview

“…CFD was also used to complement the non-dimensional analysis studies performed in WP2, to simulate a range of parameters beyond what achievable with the reduced scale of the 1 DOF tests, see Ref. [15][16][17].…”

“…Due the state-of-the-art nature of this work, it resulted in several conference and journal publications, Ref. [16][17][18][19].…”

A Numerical Investigation of Sloshing in a 3D Prismatic Tank with Various Baffle Types, Filling Rates, Input Amplitudes and Liquid Materials

“…Multiple rigid annular baffles were positioned on the rigid wall to mitigate the liquid sloshing. Wright et al [33] presented the CFD-based non-dimensional characterization of violent slosh-induced energy dissipation due to a tank under vertical excitation. The study was validated experimentally.…”

“…CFD can be defined as an engineering method that enables the simulation of fluid flow, heat transfer, and other related physical phenomena with the help of computers. Moreover, this technique has been used in many different studies to analyze sloshing phenomena [9,28,[33][34][35]. These techniques are used also in coastal engineering research.…”

Design and GVT of a dynamically scaled wing structure for fuel sloshing investigations

“…High-fidelity models are also considered as part of the SLOWD project, either based on Volume of Fluid (e.g. [11]) or Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics ( [12,13]). The present paper is a continuation of experimental sloshing-induced damping investigations applied to a more complex, wing-like structure.…”