Sloshing liquid in a

rectangular tank
Modeling approaches and failures

Pawel Zimoch
ES 240 Fall 2008
Photo: http://bulgar.no-ip.info/downloads/snimki/wall/Afternoon%20Offshores,%20Hermosa%20Beach,%20California.jpg
 Motivation
• Great practical importance, especially in
transport (tankers, trucks)
• Personal interest
 Initial goals
• Simulate vibrations of
coffee in a mug
• Cylindrical tank
• Newtonian fluid
• Horizontal harmonic
forcing
• Expected result:

Animation by Shreyas Madre

 Software
• Chose COMSOL due to advice
• COMSOL supports moving mesh which
allows modeling of free fluid surfaces
• A basic sloshing liquid model exists in the
built in model library
 COMSOL’s basic model
• Response of a body of fluid under rotation
of the gravity vector
• Rectangular subdomain
• Fluid modeled using incompressible
Navier-Stokes equations
• Liquid: glycerol
– Denisty: 1270 kg/m^3
– Dynamic viscosity: 1.49 Pa s
 Subdomain Geometry
•1m x 0.3 m Rectangle

•Automatically generated mesh

 Boundary Conditions
Navier-Stokes

• Sides and bottom: slip/symmetry

– Normal component of velocity =0
– Tangential component of viscous force = 0
• Top: neutral
– Total force = 0 (free boundary)
 Boundary Conditions
Moving Mesh

• Sides: constrained in x-direction

• Bottom: constrained in x and y-direction
• Top: mesh follows deformations of the liquid
– Velocity of the mesh in the direction parallel to its
normal equals the velocity of the fluid
r r r r
ψ • n =u • n
 Modeling approach
• Adopt similar boundary conditions to 3D
geometry
• Failed
– In cylindrical coordinates system was
underdetermined
– In rectangular coordinates, solver could not
handle the constraints (freeze)
• Therefore, decided to model in rectangular
2D, investigate
 Physical situation
• Constant horizontal acceleration 1m/s^2
for 2 seconds, then release
• E.g breaking of a truck with a fluid tank
• Find out:
– Extreme positions of vertical boundaries
– Pressures on the walls
– Total force on the tank
Result
vorticity
 Total horizontal force
horizontal force on walls

800

600
400

200
[N/m]0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
-200
-400
total force on walls in x-dir
-600
time [s]

•Force from abody of the same mass: 381 N/m

•Conlcusion: 50% greater force in case of a liquid
 Displacement of liquid on vertical
boundaries
• Right boundary

• Left boundary
 Pressure on walls
• Right
– Bottom (x=0)
– Middle (x=0.15)
– Top (x=0.3)
• 40% reduction in
pressure from
x=0.15 to x=0
• (statically 50%)
 Pressure on walls
• Left
– Bottom (x=0)
– Middle (x=0.15)
– Top (x=0.3)
 Is the model accurate?
• Fluid is glycerol – very viscous
• The vibrations experience almost no
damping.
• Energy should be dissipated due to
viscous friction – model does not
represent physics accurately
• Solution – try to implement no-slip
boundary condition
 Model with no-slip boundary
conditions
• Model vertical and
bottom boundary as
no-slip. Top boundary
remains neutral.
• Result:

QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
 Finer mesh

QuickTime™ and a
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
 Very fine mesh

To represent no-slip condition accurately, mesh around the vertical

boundaries (especially around the corners) would need to be extremely fine.
Less viscous fluid
water
 Conclusions
• While the model seems to show general
behavior of a fluid well, it’s much worse at
representing a given fluid
• To accurately represent viscous fluids, no-
slip boundary condition must be possible
to enforce.
Interesting failures (1)
Interesting failures (2)
 Acknowledgments
• Thanks to Ben Jordan for useful
hints on COMSOL
Questions?