Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Advances in Mechanical Engineering

Volume 2012, Article ID 347389, 5 pages
doi:10.1155/2012/347389

Research Article
The Critical Height of a Liquid Being Drained from the Tank with
Bell-Mouth Drain Port

J. Mohammadi,1 H. Karimi,2 M. Islami,2 and M. H. Hamedi1

1 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, 15875-4416 Tehran, Iran
2 Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, 15875-4416 Tehran, Iran

Correspondence should be addressed to J. Mohammadi, mohammadijalal@yahoo.com

Received 15 June 2012; Accepted 9 July 2012

Academic Editor: Mehdi Ahmadian

Copyright © 2012 J. Mohammadi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Vortexing occurs during draining of liquid from tanks. We studied the critical height of a liquid being drained from tank, that
is, the liquid height at the moment when the air-core vortex reaches to the drain port. We firstly performed some experiments
for determining the critical height, and then based upon the information obtained from the experiments; a simple analytical
expression was derived to predict the critical height. The experimental results show that the vortex suppressor, which is suggested
in the present paper, could effectively reduce the strength of vortex and consequently reduce the critical height. The results also
show that the new analytical expression can predict the critical height with less than 20% error when vortex suppressor is used. To
the best of our knowledge, draining from tanks with bell-mouth drain ports has not been paid attention to by other authors.

1. Introduction In some of space vehicles and rockets, bell-mouth-shaped

During draining of liquid from a container through a drain
port, a dimple appears on the liquid free surface close to
the drain port. Then the dimple develops into a vortex with
an air core, this air-core vortex extends to the drain port as
the liquid level reaches a critical height, hcr [1, 2]. The air
entrainment by the air-core vortex to a centrifugal pump can
make significant loss of efficiency and other problems.
There have been attempts to suppress vortexing using
different methods. Abramson et al. [1] found a simple cross-
type baffle over the orifice effectively eliminated the effect of
vortexing on the flow rate through the orifice. Ramamurthi
and Tharakan [3] studied the effectiveness of shaped ports in
suppressing air vortex and they found that a stepped drain
port is effective to prevent vortex formation. Sohn et al. [4]
used the tanks of square cross-section for suppressing the
vortex formation. Lakshmana Gowda et al. [2] have sug-
gested the dish-type (or cu-shaped) suppressor to prevent
vortex formation during draining after imparting initial rota-
tion. Sohn et al. [5] showed that a vane-type suppressor is
effective to prevent vortex formation. A circular flat plate
with porous wall was used by Mahyari et al. [6]. Sohn et al.
[7] studied the effect of eccentric drain holes in suppressing
vortex.
discharge ports are used in liquid propellant tanks (Figures 1
and 2). The reason for using this type of port could be (1)
nonaxiality of pump and tank, (2) not having enough space
in the engine section; (3) the critical height reduction. In the
literature (to our knowledge), there is not any investigation
about vortex formation with bell-mouth port, so in the
present paper, we study vortex formation in a cylindrical tank
with bell-mouth drain port. Moreover, we suggest a simple
device (vane-type suppressor) to prevent vortex formation.
In the following parts, firstly the critical height is deter-
mined experimentally with and without vortex suppressor.
Then based upon the obtained experimental information, a
new analytical expression is extracted to predict the critical
height.
2. Experimental Study
The experimental model was cylindrical tank with circular
cross section, calling it test tank from now on (Figures 1 and
2). The diameter and length of the test tank are 1000 mm and
2000 mm, respectively. For reducing scale effect, the dimen-
sions of the test tank were chosen close to real cases. The bell-
mouth drain port centrally located at the bottom of the test
2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
D = 1000
1 r
R = 1000 d = 115
Figure 1: The test tank, the symbols, and the control volume used in the present study (unit: mm).
The vortex
26 suppressor
plates
90
310
The bell-mouth
drain port
Figure 2: The bell-mouth drain port with eight vortex suppressor
plates (unit: mm).
tank along the vertical axis. We suggested a suppressor device
to prevent vortex formation. This device consists of eight
plates, which were placed under the bell-mouth drain port.
Their positions and geometrical dimensions were shown in
Figure 2.
The experiments were conducted to measure the critical
height of liquid draining from the test tank. At each test,
liquid was drained from the tank through the bell-mouth
drain port with constant volume flow rate. The experiment
procedures included (1) charging the test tank from the
reservoir tank by using pump, liquid entered from top of
the test tank, (2) after charging, with 3-minute delay time,
the experiment started and liquid was drained from the
test tank to the reservoir tank by pump. The flow rate was
controlled by a valve that connected to the drain port, and
the volume flow rate, Q, was measured by flow meter, (3) the
free surface of liquid in the test tank was recorded by a video
camera through graduated Plexiglas at fuselage of the test
tank, and (4) after air entered the drain port, the experiment
finished and pump was turned off. The critical height of
1 r
h
r
a = 12 α = 0.262
(rad) b = 155
air-entrainment was obtained easily by watching the motion
picture film recorded in the third stage of the test. To check
the reliability of the obtained results, each experiment was
repeated several times.
The slightest disturbance in the liquid affects very
strongly the critical height [1, 2, 8]. In the present experi-
ments, since the test tank was charged from the top of tank,
the liquid of the test tank became disturbed. It was observed
from the experiments that the liquid disturbance has little
effect on the critical height beyond 3 minutes of delay time,
which was chosen as the time duration between the end of
charging and the start of draining. Thus, prior to any
experiment, the liquids in the tank were kept undisturbed for
3 minutes to create a near-quiescent liquid when the drain
valve was opened and the pumping was started.
Figure 3 shows two pictures of vortex formation near
to bell-mouth drain port in two different times: the dimple
formation and air-entrainment vortex. In the present paper,
the height of the liquid in the test tank as air vortex reaches
to drain port was assigned as the critical height and was
measured.
The critical heights verses drain flow rate obtained from
experiments were presented in Figure 4 at various initial
liquid heights (0.6, 0.90, 1.30, and 1.50 m). These results have
been shown in two groups: with and without vortex suppres-
sor device. It is seen in Figure 4 that the vortex suppressor
reduces the critical height effectively. Figure 4 shows that
the critical height increase gradually with increasing drain
flow rate, and it is nearly independent of the initial height
of liquid.
3. Theoretical Approach for Predicting
the Critical Height
In this section, based on the experimental observation and
some assumptions, an attempt will be made to predict
analytically the critical height at which air vortex reaches to
the drain port. The analytical method, which is applied here
to predict the critical height, is similar to the study conducted
by Lubin and Springer [8]. The analysis was performed based
on some assumptions as follows:
Advances in Mechanical Engineering 3

Air core
Dimple

(a) (b)

Figure 3: Vortexing in the bell-mouth drain port: (a) the formation of a dimple on the free surface; (b) the vortex with air core and air
entrainment (the critical height).

The initial height = 1.5 m The initial height = 1.3 m

11 11
The critical height (hcr ) (cm)
The critical height (hcr ) (cm)

10 10
9 9
8 8
7 7
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
5 10 15 20 25 30 5 10 15 20 25 30
The drain flow rate from tank (Q) (L/s) The drain flow rate from tank (Q) (L/s)
(a) (b)

The initial height = 0.9 m The initial height = 0.6 m

11 11
The critical height (hcr ) (cm)

10
The critical height (hcr ) (cm)

10
9 9
8 8
7 7
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
5 10 15 20 25 30 5 10 15 20 25 30
The drain flow rate from tank (Q) (L/s) The drain flow rate from tank (Q) (L/s)

The experiment without vortex suppressor The experiment without vortex suppressor
The experiment with vortex suppressor The experiment with vortex suppressor
The analytical expression The analytical expression
(c) (d)

Figure 4: The analytical and experimental results of the critical height at various initial liquid heights as (a) 1.5 m, (b) 1.3 m, (c) 0.9 m, and
(d) 0.6 m.
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
(a) the effects of viscosity of liquid are negligible;
(b) the effect of surface tension at the interface is negli-
gible.
It is pointed out that Hite and Mih [9] determined the critical
Reynolds and Weber number at which the surface tension
and viscous effects are negligible. In current tests, both Weber
and Reynolds numbers were larger than these critical criteria;
therefore, we took these two previous assumptions;
(c) prior to the air vortex reaches to the drain port,
the flow is steady. This assumption is based on two
experimental parameters: (1) the diameter ratios
between the test tank and the pipe of the bell-mouth
port (D/d) is large (Figure 1) and (2) the volume flow
rate of draining is constant;
(d) the strength of vortex is low; we suppose that the
vortex suppressor, which was suggested in the present
study, can prevent vortex formation effectively.
Prior to the air vortex reaches to the drain port (see
Figure 1), we can write the Bernoulli equation, based on the
above assumptions, along a streamline between points (1)
and (r) as follows:
1 1
P1 + ρgh1 + ρV12 = Pr + ρghr + ρVr2 , (1)
2 2
where P, ρ, V , g, and h are pressure, density, and velocity
of liquid; the gravitational acceleration and the liquid
height with respect to the lowest point of the test tank,
respectively. Points (1) and (r) were shown in Figure 1. V1 is
approximately equal with zero. An estimated value for Vr is
obtained with writing the conservation of mass equation for
the control volume shown in Figure 1. The flow surface,
which was shown in Figure 1, may be expressed as
  π/2
dA = 2π (b + r cos θ)r dθ,
α
    (2)
π
A = 2π r b − α + r(1 − sin α) ,
2
where b and α are the geometrical parameters (see Figure 1),
and θ is variable of integration (the angle between normal
line of the surface dA and horizontal line). The conservation
of mass equation is written as:
Q There is a clear difference between the critical height
Vr = , (3)
2π r(b(π/2 − α) + r(1 − sin α))
where Q is the drain flow rate from the test tank through the
bell-mouth port.
In writing (3), it is further assumed that at every point on
the surface of the control volume, the flow velocity has the
same value and is normal to this surface.
In (1), P1 is equal to pressure on free surface that is
replaced by Pgas . In addition, if we take the reference height
at the lowest point of the test tank, then hr , in (1), is equal to
r + a (see Figure 1). Therefore, (1) is simplified to:
Pr = Pgas + ρgh1 − ρg(r + a)
(4)
1 Q2
− ρ .
2 (2π r(b(π/2 − α) + r(1 − sin α)))2
Equation (4) shows that with reducing r, Pr firstly
increases up to specific radius, which is shown by rcr , and
then decreases. We can obtain rcr as follows:
dPr
= 0,
dr
(5)
Q2 (b(π/2 − α) + 2rcr (1 − sin α))
= g.
4π 2 rcr3 (b(π/2 − α) + rcr (1 − sin α))3
If the free surface height decrease and rreaches to rcr , then
Pr monotonically decreases on streamline from the free
surface to the drain port and consequently the air can enter
the drain port. This liquid height is the critical height. By
inserting rcr , as obtained by (5), into (4) and considering that
at the critical height Pr = Pgas , the critical height is obtained
as:
1 Q2
hcr = rcr + a + .
2 g(2πrcr (b(π/2 − α) + rcr (1 − sin α)))2
(6)
The critical height is obtained from (5) and (6) by trial
and error. Equations (5) and (6) show that the critical height
depends on the geometrical parameters, drain flow rate,
liquid density, and gravitational acceleration.
In the present experimental study, the geometrical
parameters (a, b, α), (g) and (ρ) are equal to 12 mm, 155 mm,
15◦ = 0.262 (rad), 9.81 (m/s2 ) and 998 (kg/m3 ), respectively.
According to these values, the analytical results of the critical
height were shown in Figure 4. It is seen that the critical
height increases monotonically with Q.
4. The Comparison and Discussion of
the Results
The analytical and experimental results of the critical height
were presented in previous sections. These results, shown in
Figure 4, consist of three groups: experimental results with
and without vortex suppressor device, and analytical results.
Below, each group is discussed and compared with other
groups.
of the without-suppressor-device group and that of the
analytical-results group. This difference emerged from vortex
formation.
The critical heights of the analytical results are close
to the experimental ones with vortex suppressor. This fact
shows that the vortex suppressor, which was used in bell-
mouth drain port, effectively prevents vortex formation. In
addition, the assumptions that were applied to derive the
critical height are approximately correct. It is guessed that
the little difference between these results is due to deviation
in assumption (d) and error in estimation of Vr (3).
The experimental results (with and without vortex sup-
pressor) show that the critical height is not strongly depen-
dent on the initial height of the liquid in the tank. It will
increase slightly for lower initial height, which may be due
Advances in Mechanical Engineering 5

to the presence of higher initial disturbances under such [8] B. T. Lubin and G. S. Springer, “The formation of a dimple on
condition. The disturbance is caused by charging the test the surface of a liquid draining from a tank,” Journal of Fluid
tank from the top. Therefore, the generated disturbance Mechanics, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 385–390, 1967.
can be more intensive in the case of lower initial height as [9] J. E. Hite and W. C. Mih, “Velocity of air-core vortices at
compared to the case with the higher initial height. hydraulic intakes,” Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, vol. 120,
no. 3, pp. 284–297, 1994.
5. Conclusion
In the present paper, liquid draining from propellant tank
was studied. The critical height of air entrainment to the
drain port was measured experimentally, and then a new
analytical expression was derived to calculate the critical
height. The main results and important points are as follows:
(i) the vortex suppressor, which was suggested in this
study, could reduce the vortex strength and the
critical height considerably;
(ii) the analytical expression, which was extracted based
on Bernoulli equation and some assumptions such as
no vortex formation, could predict the critical height
with vortex suppressor with less than 20% error;
(iii) we could say that by using a vortex suppressor device
similar to the one used in this study, the analytical
method, which was proposed here, may be used to
estimate the critical height in other bell-mouth drain
ports;
(iv) the dimension of experimental model that was used
is large and close to real liquid propellant tank
dimensions. Therefore, the results that were obtained
here are applicable to design these tanks.

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