Nonlinear sloshing in rectangular tanks under forced excitation

Abstract

A numerical code is developed based on potential flow theory to investigate nonlinear sloshing in rectangular Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tanks under forced excitation. Using this code, internal free-surface elevation and sloshing loads on liquid tanks can be obtained both in time domain and frequency domain. In the mathematical model, acceleration potential is solved in the calculation of pressure on tanks and the artificial damping model is adopted to account for energy dissipation during sloshing. The Boundary Element Method (BEM) is used to solve boundary value problems of both velocity potential and acceleration potential. Numerical calculation results are compared with published results to determine the efficiency and accuracy of the numerical code. Sloshing properties in partially filled rectangular and membrane tank under translational and rotational excitations are investigated. It is found that sloshing under horizontal and rotational excitations share similar properties. The first resonant mode and excitation frequency are the dominant response frequencies. Resonant sloshing will be excited when vertical excitation lies in the instability region. For liquid tank under rotational excitation, sloshing responses including amplitude and phase are sensitive to the location of the center of rotation. Moreover, experimental tests were conducted to analyze viscous effects on sloshing and to validate the feasibility of artificial damping models. The results show that the artificial damping model with modifying wall boundary conditions has better applicability in simulating sloshing under different fill levels and excitations. Keywords: Sloshing, Potential flow, Boundary element method, Artificial damping model, Experimental test