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

Abstract

Partially filled liquid-carrying tanks have been used in many engineering applications, such as ships, vehicle fuel tanks, rockets, and drink or petroleum tankers. Liquid sloshing is an exciting phenomenon that researchers are investigating because of its complex behavior specifications. In this study, the sloshing responses of a prismatic tank with the approximate volume of an automobile fuel tank under different laterally harmonic excitation amplitudes, baffle structures, filling rates, and different types of liquid were investigated numerically. The computational fluid dynamics method (CFD) was used to solve fluid dynamics equations, and the volume of fluid method was applied to simulate two-phase flow in the tank. A validation study was performed by a literature study. Later, the effect of large and small excitation amplitudes, filling rates and fluid types on sloshing behavior were investigated and comparatively analyzed in the tank system with various baffle types.

Keywords

• computational fluid dynamics
• sloshing
• baffle structure