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1. Sloshing liquid in a rectangular tank Pawel Zimoch
ES 240 Fall 2008
2. Motivation Great practical importance, especially in transport (tankers, trucks)
Personal interest
3. Initial goals Simulate vibrations of coffee in a mug
Cylindrical tank
Newtonian fluid
Horizontal harmonic forcing
Expected result:
4. 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
5. COMSOLs 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
6. Subdomain Geometry
7. Boundary Conditions Sides and bottom: slip/symmetry
Normal component of velocity =0
Tangential component of viscous force = 0
Top: neutral
Total force = 0 (free boundary)
8. Boundary Conditions 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
9. 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
10. 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
11. Result
12. Total horizontal force
13. Displacement of liquid on vertical boundaries Right boundary
14. 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%)
16. 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
17. Model with no-slip boundary conditions Model vertical and bottom boundary as no-slip. Top boundary remains neutral.
Result:
18. Finer mesh
19. Very fine mesh
20. Less viscous fluid
21. Conclusions While the model seems to show general behavior of a fluid well, its much worse at representing a given fluid
To accurately represent viscous fluids, no-slip boundary condition must be possible to enforce.
22. Interesting failures (1)
23. Interesting failures (2)
24. Acknowledgments
25. Questions?