Improved method for implementing contact angle condition in simulation of liquid sloshing under microgravity

Abstract

SummaryThe finite element simulation of liquid sloshing under microgravity is focused on in this paper. For this class of flows, an important issue is to implement the contact angle boundary condition appropriately. A novel method of adding infinitely small free‐surface mesh just adjacent to the contact line is proposed here, which coincides with the physical definition of the contact angle. This free‐surface mesh has its orientation determined according to the contact angle, and the mean curvature at the contact line can be computed using this orientation. Hence, surface tension force can be computed and incorporated as an essential boundary condition into the pressure solve. This method is convenient to be applied in three‐dimensional simulations, and the use of relatively coarse meshes near the contact line is allowed. In order to validate the proposed method, several numerical simulations of flows in two‐dimensional circular and three‐dimensional cylindrical and spherical containers are presented, including calculation of equilibrium positions of the free surfaces, unsteady flows of liquid reorientation, and large‐amplitude nonlinear liquid sloshing under lateral excitation in microgravity. Parts of the numerical results are compared with the theoretical and published experimental results.