Modeling the sloshing problem in a rectangular tank with submerged incomplete baffles

Abstract

AbstractPurpose – The present work is an experimental and numerical study of a sloshing problem including baffleeffects. The purpose of this paper is to assess the numerical behavior of a Lagrangian technique to track freesurface flows by comparison with experiments, to report experimental data for sloshing at differentconditions and to evaluate the effectiveness of baffles in limiting the wave height and the wave propagation.Design/methodology/approach – Finite element simulations performed with a fixed mesh techniqueable to describe the free surface evolution are contrasted with experimental data. The experimentsconsist of an acrylic tank of rectangular section designed to attach baffles of different sizes at differentdistance from the bottom. The tank is filled with water and mounted on a shake table able to move undercontrolled horizontal motion. The free surface evolution is measured with ultrasonic sensors. Thenumerical results computed for different sloshing conditions are compared with the experimental data.Findings – The reported numerical results are in general in good agreement with the experiments.In particular, wave heights and frequencies response satisfactorily compared with the experimental datafor the several cases analyzed during steady state forced sloshing and free sloshing. The effectiveness ofthe baffles increases near resonance conditions. From the set of experiments studied, the major reductionof the wave height was obtained when larger baffles were positioned closer to the water level at rest.Practical implications – Model validation: evaluation of the effectiveness of non-massive immersedbaffles during sloshing.Originality/value – The value of the present work encompass the numerical and experimental studyof the effect of immersed baffles during sloshing under different imposed conditions and thecomparison of numerical results with the experimental data. Also, the results shown in the presentwork are a contribution to the understanding of the role in the analysis of the proposed problem ofsome specific aspects of the geometry and the imposed motion.Keywords FEM, Computational fluid dynamics, Baffle effects, Experimental validation, SloshingPaper type Research paper