Liquid Sloshing

Liquid sloshing can have dramatic effects on a tank structure. For design consideration it is important to quantify the effects of this sloshing on the system. Even simple baffles can reduce the sloshing effects, and their exact shapes and positions can be designed with the use of Computationnal Fluid Dynamics.

The CFD simulations will determine local pressure data as a function of time and thus provide informations on forces exerted on internal walls and baffles. The graphic bellow illustrates this:

The simulation can predict the interface (between liquid and gas) position at every pre-defined times, once the snapshots are combined you can have very detailled animations.

The following animation shows the violence of the sloshing in a tank without baffles (in case of a sudden stop). The simulation was first performed on a simplified 2d case (this reduce the simulation time), before extending it into a 3d problem.