Numerical and experimental investigation of sloshing under large amplitude roll excitation

To enable a virtual design and optimization process of partially filled coolant tanks a reliable numerical approach is needed to predict the liquid and gas two phase flow inside the tanks. In this study numerical results are validated by experimental data to examine the suitability of the method for the tank design process. The liquid motion inside the tanks can be described as sloshing with high amplitude, off-resonant roll excitation and was examined using a homogeneous multiphase model and VOF interface capturing approach as well as an experimental setup including piezoelectric pressure sensors and qualitative observation of the free surface. The effect of two vertical baffles on the maximum pressure and the position of phase interface was determined. The comparison between the computational and experimental results reveals that the numerical model tends to under predict the experimental peak pressures but resolves the liquid surface in close agreement with the experiments.

Automated summary

This study utilizes a numerical approach to predict the two-phase flow of liquid and gas inside partially filled coolant tanks and validates the numerical results with experimental data. It was found that the numerical model tends to underestimate peak pressures but shows close agreement with experimental results in simulating the liquid surface.