EXTENDED ABSTRACT

Submitted By
G BHARAT V R REDDY
14CE65R22

The air-water sloshing problem: Fundamental analysis and parametric

studies on excitation and fill levels
K.P.Thiagarajan, D.Rakshit, N.Repalle
The UWA Oceans Institute and School of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA
6009,Australia

ABSTRACT
The problem of liquid sloshing in partially filled transport containers has gained recent
attention. The impact pressure on container walls due to sloshing in partially filled containers
depend on several parameters such as fill level, amplitude of oscillation of tank. Stability of
containers In this paper linear potential theory for sloshing in 2 dimensional rectangular tank
is studied.
Computational models were developed using the finite volume approximation for fluid
domain and VOF technique for the liquid air interface.
INTRODUCTION
As the demand for LNG has increased so has the demand for larger vessels to carry LNG.
Ship owners and transporters are aiming to transport LNG in these carriers at partially full
level. Due to the motion of the sea, the free surface of the partially filled fluid moves and
imparts impact pressures on the inner surfaces of the containers. These forces can sometimes
lead to the structural failure of the container. Various parameters affecting the impact
pressures are studied.
OBJECTIVE
The paper studies the fundamental sloshing phenomenon occurring in a 2 dimensional
rectangular container. A linear inviscid potential theory is developed and response amplitude
operators are derived.
Computational fluid dynamics methods are then applied for sloshing in rectangular tank
where the two phases are air and water.
The term response amplitude operator(RAO) is introduced as the motion amplitude per wave
amplitude.
THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT
The formulation is of the small amplitude wave theory
The governing equation
2 =0
Boundary conditions

=0 at x=0x=a
x


=0 at z=h
z
2

+g
=0 at z =0
t2
z
The solution to the above problem is
n2= g (n/a)tanh(nh/a)
where n is the mode number.
The generalized free surface equation and the velocity potential may be written as
( x , t )=qn( t)cos ( n / a)

cosh

( n ( az +h) ) (a /n )cos (nx /a)

sinh

( nha )

( x , z , t )= qn ( t )

To bring the excitation into picture Euler Lagrange equation is applied

d L
L
=0
'
dt q
q

( )

The final equation turns out to be

qn + n2qn = (2(1-cosn)/n)tanh(nh/a)X
Response Amplitude operator
RAOx = max ( ( x ,t ) ) / A

=| 2((1cos ( n))/n )tanh ( n h/a) ( 2/ 2- n2)cos(

n x / a )|
VALIDATION OF FORMULATION
Warnitchai and Pinakaew conducted experiments were conducted on sloshing in a rectangular
tank of length 400mm and width 200mm placed on a shaker table. A wire mesh was placed
half way in the tank to increase damping of the motion. Results were noted at 30% fill
condition when the tank was excited at various frequencies while maintaining a constant
amplitude of 2mm. At this amplitude motion is considered linear.

The results obtained from the theory matched with the experimental values. The agreement in
the off resonant regions is reasonable and well predicted by the linear theory. In the resonant
region experimental and numerical data are sparse.

COMPUTATIONAL MODEL
The computational solution of the fluid dynamics problem requires the solution of
conservation of mass and conservation of momentum equations.
In the present situation modelling is done by assuming the flow to be turbulent. To reduce the
complexity of simulations by time averaging, turbulence effects are incorporated in terms of
mean quantities of flow. With the introduction of time averaging procedure the instantaneous
velocity becomes ut=U + u where U is the mean and u is the fluctuating component.
We obtain
Continuity equation

Momentum Equation

ij=

Ui
=0
xi
Ui
Ui
p
Ui Uj
+ Uj
=F
+
[
+
+ij]
t
xj
xi xj
xj xi

2
kij
( uixj + uj
)
xi 3

The additional ij

represents the turbulent stresses.

The Reynolds stresses are calculated with the knowledge of turbulent kinetic energy k and
dissipation rate .
The interface between liquid and gas is tracked by volume of fluid (VOF) method. It relies on
the fact that two or more phases are not interpenetrating and for each new phase a new
variable i.e the volume fraction of the corresponding phase is introduced. Based on the local
volume fraction of the qth fluid the appropriate properties and variables are assigned to each
cell within the domain. A single momentum equation is solved throughout the domain and the
resulting velocity field is shared among the phases. In the case of turbulent quantities a single
set of transport equations is solved and the turbulence variables are shared by the phases
throughout the field.

COMPUTATIONAL PROCEDURE
A structured moving grid-mesh is used to simulate 2D sloshing flow in rectangular tank for
various fill levels ranging 10% to 95%. In order to model the free surface boundaries, a
dynamic mesh algorithm is utilized. In this method, the mesh is updated for each set of
successive iteration from the given time varying boundary conditions. The boundary sway
motions considered in the numerical simulations are created using a piston crankshaft
arrangement. The relation between the crankshaft speed and the piston stroke with the sway
period and amplitude is developed using a user defined sub routine.
The variables monitored are pressure and free surface elevation. Pressures are measured
along the right wall and on the roof, at points spaced 45mm apart. At each of these points, the
pressure is obtained as the vertex average of all the cells within 2.5mm strip. The peak
pressure obtained over the cycles was averaged to get an indicative maximum pressure at that
location. For the wave height two iso surfaces were created, coincident with the instantaneous
free surface and the bottom. Mesh convergence studies are also done.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Three main parameters are analysed. These are Excitation frequency, Excitation amplitude
Liquid fill level.
INFLUENCE OF EXCITATION FREQUENCY
At lower fill level, the agreement predicted by the linear theory is in close agreement with
the simulations except at near resonant conditions. The average of pressure peaks tends to be
lower than the theoretical values. The data around resonance is highly non-linear and the
simulated results. A close examination of the free surface elevation at second natural
frequency shows that free surface motion is non-linear.
INFLUENCE OF EXCITATION AMPLITUDE
In the resonant and near resonant regions the excitation amplitude and damping are expected
to play an important role. It is also important in differentiating linear and non-linear regimes.
It is seen that for amplitudes upto 2.5 % tank length there is general agreement between
theory and simulations. Beyond this there is deviations in theory and simulated values as nonlinear behaviour creeps in. Increasing the amplitude of sway increases the sloshing height of
water in the tank. For the higher amplitudes, the water can be seen to hit the roof at one
instant and leave the bottom of the tank dry at another instant in time.
INFLUENCE OF TANK FILL LEVEL
At higher fill levels, the impact with the roof can cause pressure changes, which significantly
deviate from linear predictions. Irrespective of the frequency and fill beyond 50% the
maximum pressure tends to occur at a fixed point on the roof. It is felt that this phenomenon
could be caused by the topology of the overturning free surface, which may have
deterministic features.
CONCLUSIONS
Valuable insight was provided by the numerical and theoretical calculations but undisputable
results havent been found.

It was interesting to note that 20% and 80% fill levels had somewhat higher pressures than
other conditions.
At fills beyond 50% , the maximum pressure occurred at affixed point on the roof.