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Influence factors of the numerical model build-up on fluid sloshing

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Abstract

It is important to predict fluid sloshing in cryogenic fuel storage tanks with an accurate numerical model. In the present paper, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was established to simulate fluid sloshing. The fluid sloshing experiments in an apparent vessel were adopted to be the benchmark and used to validate the numerical model. As most of investigations were conducted with some certain model settings, few are involved on the influence factor on numerical model build-up. Based on the selected sloshing experiments, effects of the numerical time step and phase change factor on fluid sloshing were investigated. The results showed that the time steps of 0.001 and 0.002 s and the phase change factor of 0.1 s−1 could meet the requirement of fluid sloshing prediction. With some valuable conclusions being obtained, the present study may supply some effective references for numerical model building on fluid sloshing.

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Abbreviations

A :

amplitude of the excitation

C 1ε, C 2ε, C μ :

calculation model constant

E :

te]energy term

f :

excitation frequency

F vol :

volume force

g :

gravity acceleration (m/s2)

G b :

generation of turbulence kinetic energy caused by buoyancy

G k :

generation of turbulence kinetic energy due to the mean velocity

hpch :

latent heat (kJ/kg)

k :

kinetic energy, thermal conductivity

r :

time parameter

S h :

energy source term

S m :

mass source term

T :

temperature (K)

t :

sloshing time (s)

ν :

velocity vector

Y M :

contribution of the fluctuation dilatation

α :

void fraction

κ :

surface curvature (m−l)

ρ :

density (kg/m3)

θ :

angle

ε :

kinetic energy rate of dissipation

σ lv :

interfacial surface tension

σ k, σ ε :

turbulent Prandtl number

μ :

dynamic viscosity

q :

liquid or vapor phase

l:

liquid

sat:

saturation

v:

vapor

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20180654), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51806235) and the Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Technologies in Space Cryogenic Propellants (SKLTSCP202012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Zhan Liu

  2. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Cui Li

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  1. Zhan Liu
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  2. Cui Li
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Correspondence to Zhan Liu or Cui Li.

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Liu, Z., Li, C. Influence factors of the numerical model build-up on fluid sloshing. Exp. Comput. Multiph. Flow 4, 435–444 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42757-020-0099-6

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