Characteristics of air-water flow in an emptying tank under different conditions

Abstract

This paper experimentally studied the features of air-water flow during the emptying of a water-filled prismatic tank with a bottom orifice under different conditions. The experiments were conducted with both circular and elliptical orifices, with and without ventilation. The evolution of bubbles, water pressure variation, and water level change with time were recorded in the experiments and analyzed. Based on the results, the evolution of bubbles could be mainly divided into three stages of formation, deformation, and decomposition. Ventilation was found important to the emptying process, with which the drainage efficiency was much higher than that under the unventilated condition. Additionally, under the unventilated condition, the drainage efficiency with the circular orifice was slightly higher than that with the elliptical orifice.