Efficacy of Volume of Fluid Method in Computational Simulation of Sloshing Phenomenon

Abstract

The present study deals with the analysis of stochastic transient pressure variations and wall impacts for scaled down models of LNG carriers by using the VOF technique for interface characterization. Numerical simulation of sloshing under sway using multiphase liquid-gas condition has been carried out. Use of VOF method for multiphase numerical simulation is compared with the results of previously performed SPH study and established sloshing experiments. The efficacies of the VOF interface capturing technique is established by comparison with high-resolution images taken during sloshing experiments performed under the same external excitation frequency, amplitude and fill level. The pressure data from experiments when compared with respective simulations involving SPH and VOF methods helps to capture the fluid flow behaviour and intricacies they can handle.

On the Efficacy of Turbulence Modelling for Sloshing

“…The phenomenon seems to impact the majority of two-equation closing models [50,58]. Although this problem has been known for over two decades [49], the standard RANS models have been used successfully in many studies [51][52][53][54][55][56][57], and the underlying cause of this problem is not fully understood [50]. Mayer and Madsen [49] proved that k-ω and kmodels are unstable in the region of potential flow beneath the surface, where the models can suffer from exponential growth in turbulent kinetic energy.…”

“…Conversely, several studies have shown the importance of turbulence models in the simulation of free surface flows. Realising the lack of consensus on the importance of turbulence modelling in sloshing simulations, [51,52] assumed sloshing is a turbulent phenomenon, and standard turbulence models were used. Rhee [53] showed that a lack of turbulence modelling can lead to non-physical irregularities and instabilities in the nomodel solution.…”