Numerical and Experimental Studies of Liquid Sloshing in Rectangular Tanks Using a Particle Method

The sloshing waves in rectangular tanks are studied experimentally and numerically based on the fully nonlinear wave theory. A moving-particle semi-implicit (MPS) method belonging to the category of the particle method is utilized to solve the Navier-Stokes equation that is the governing equation of the incompressible fluids. The motion of each particle is calculated through interactions with neighboring particles covered with the kernel function. The governing equations are solved by Lagrangian approach and no grid is needed in the computation. The incompressibility is satisfied by keeping the particle number density constant. When the tank undergoes two-dimensional motion, the numerical results obtained are found to be in good agreement with other published data as well as our experimental results obtained by shake-table tests. Experiments with rectangular tanks have been conducted to validate the numerical results, for which favorable agreement is shown. Results will also be presented for the study which is currently extended to three dimensional sloshing by exciting the tank at an inclined angle.