Numerical simulation of wave impact and high pressure characteristics due to violent sloshing in a rectangular tank

ABSTRACT

Understanding violent sloshing is of practical concern to a wide range of applications as it may compromise safety in a number of engineering applications. The present study investigates violent sloshing in a 2D tank. In particular, the evolution and influence of an air pocket and the impact pressure on tank walls are numerically studied. Since the problem involves multi-phase flows, standard dam-break problem is used for validations. The liquid depth and amplitude of excitation are systematically varied to assess the impact pressures on walls and roof of the tank. Non-linear effects are captured qualitatively and the distribution of impact pressures on the tank walls is examined. The entrainment of an air pocket by a standing wave at the tank roof is delineated. The violent sloshing wave motion causes the formation of air pockets that arise for a range of forcing amplitudes and a variety of liquid depths. Gradual decay in the impact pressure due to the generation of these air pockets is significant on overall sloshing dynamics. The maximum peak pressure predicted on the tank roof is about 10 times the static pressure, which is also about twice the peak pressure obtained on the side wall. Furthermore, the distribution of average impact-pressure profiles on the tank walls and roof is presented for different loading conditions vis-á-vis global impact characteristics of sloshing wave motion.

KEYWORDS:

• Sloshing
• multi-phase flows
• impact pressure
• air pocket
• CFD
• OpenFOAM

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.