Explicit Finite Element Study of Liquid Sloshing Behavior in Fluid-Structure Interaction Condition

Abstract

As a common phenomenon in liquid motions, sloshing usually happens in a partially filled liquid tank of moving vehicle or structure. The objectives of this paper are to study sloshing behavior in rigid tank and deformable tank, and to develop a better performance baffle design in the tank under seismic excitations. The tank is surged with a sinusoidal oscillation about horizontal x-direction. The hydro-elasticity effect of sloshing pressure on the tank wall was taken into consideration due to the fluid-structure interaction between impact pressures and tank structures. ABAQUS finite element program using Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) technique was employed to simulate fluid sloshing. The sloshing phenomenon was studied in rigid tank and deformable tank models with three different water levels, and the effect of wall thickness of the deformable tank on sloshing behavior was discussed. One way to minimize the effect of sloshing in a tank, baffles are used and installed in the middle of the tank, and then various heights and material types of baffle were evaluated. The simulation results show that higher water level case creates greater pressure impact on the tank wall than lower water level case, and the elasticity of the tank structure would reduce the impact pressure of the wall. For the simulation tank model with size of 1m (H) × 1m (W) × 0.2m (D), better performance baffle was found to be the one with the height of 0.35m and was made of acrylic material. Moreover, the conclusion of this study can be extrapolated to other dimensions of the model based on similarity theory. This paper also can serve as an aid in further studying sloshing phenomenon. The findings of this study can be applied to restrain or minimize sloshing motions inside a tank.