A Computational Approach to Slosh Damping with Floating Magnetoactive Micro-baffles

Abstract

Liquid sloshing within propellant tanks of launch vehicles and other major vehicles has been a major concern. Various methods have been utilized for the damping of slosh through Propellant Management Devices (PMD) accomplishing a wide range of results. Exploratory research is conducted at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Fuel Slosh Test Facility in development of an innovative PMD. Embedding floating micro-baffles with a magnetoactive material such that the baffle can be manipulated when exposed to a magnetic field preserves the benefits of both floating and static baffle designs. Activated micro-baffles form a rigid layer at the free surface and provide a restriction of the fluid motion. Proposed micro-baffle design and magnetic activation source method along with proof-of-concept experiments comparing the scope of this research to previous PMD methods is conducted. A computational fluid dynamics approach is outlined to compliment these experimental results. The purpose of this research is to design an improved computational model, holding less assumptions and constraints that would provide a more accurate simulation of the slosh behavior. A correlation in results between the experimental and computational methods are shown, where the computational model qualitatively simulates an ideal sloshing scenario.