Examination of numerical simulation method for analyzing sloshing characteristics in fuel storage tanks

Abstract

In order to make a numerical simulation method that is applicable to fluid motion in a fuel storage tank due to such external disturbance like seismic vibration, a more conventional Large Eddy Simulation (LES) method for simulating turbulent flows has been reexamined and adapted to deal with smoother flows with large body forces such as gravity and inertial acceleration, characterized by mostly irrotational motion. With some modification to the numerical scheme and the method of representing residual unresolved stresses, sloshing phenomena in rectangular and cylindrical storage tanks have been analyzed. The resonating sloshing frequency and the viscous damping are found to be reproduced well. Along with slow first-mode oscillations, higher-order modes of motion are also reproduced.