Investigation of liquid sloshing characteristics in tanks using an OpenFOAM solver with arbitrary excitation

Abstract

A multiphase flow solver with mesh motion is typically used for simulations of liquid sloshing in containers, such as those in spacecraft, aircraft, and ships. The mode of the mesh motion should be predefined by functions, which is difficult for a sustained and arbitrary motion. In the present work, a general solver without mesh motion for liquid sloshing in tanks is proposed, based on the interFoam solver in OpenFOAM, by tracking the free surface using the volume of fluid method. An arbitrary excitation loading algorithm is implemented for automatically loading the three-dimensional arbitrary acceleration data. Moreover, the energy equation with phase change is also newly implemented in this solver so that the heat and mass transfer can be evaluated for cryogenic fuels during sloshing. In this way, arbitrary external excitations can be directly imported for any arbitrary sloshing case, and the characteristics of liquid sloshing and oscillation forces can be directly simulated without mesh motion. The solver is validated using different cases, and the influence of sloshing on the mass transfer rate and the effect of the baffle on the liquid sloshing characteristics are investigated. The results indicate that the solver can be easily applied to engineering problems involving liquid sloshing.