Water Sloshing in Rectangular Tanks – An Experimental Investigation & Numerical Simulation

This paper presents the steps involved in designing a test rig to study water sloshing phenomenon in a 560 x 160 x 185 mm PVC rectangular container subjected to sudden (impulsive) impact. The design encompasses the construction of the testing facility and the development of a proper data acquisition system capable of capturing the behavior of pre- and post impact water motion inside the tank. Fluid motion was recorded using a video camera for flow visualization purpose. Two water levels of 50 and 75% full as well as two driving weights of 2.5 and 4.5 kg were used. The experimental study was supplemented by a computational fluid dynamics study to mimic the fluid motion inside the tank. Examination of CFD capability to predict the behavior of the free surface of the fluid during the container initial motion and after impact is the focus of this paper. The flow fields, obtained using the numerical code, are in reasonable agreement with those from experiments. Both experimental and numerical results indicated the presence of a single traveling wave before impact, contrary to what was observed in previous studies.