Model Test on Sloshing of Rectangular Tank

Abstract

When designing large tanks in ships, we have considered qualitatively various sloshing phenomena which have not been confirmed experimentally yet. This report presents on experimental studies of some items among these sloshing phenomena. The studies include investigation of relations between the corner shape of tank and sloshing pressure and also investigation of relations between sloshing pressure and the angle between the rolling axis of tank and the center line of tank. Tests were carried out by putting three kinds of model tanks on a rolling apparatus which was capable of simulating regular pitching or rolling motion only. These three models were the same dimension, but the corner shape was different among them. The first type of model has no obstacle inside of tank and the corner shape is square. The second type has some stiffeners around the top corner and the corner shape is square. The third type has cylindrical corner without stiffeners inside. Main items obtained by these experiments are follows: (1)Top corner shape has a large effect on the sloshing pressure and cylindrical corner reduces the sloshing pressure significantly. (2)The sloshing pressure around the corner becomes higher when the tank is rolling diagonally.