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NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF WATER SLOSHING IN A TANK WITH A

FLEXIBLE SOLID ALUMINIUM BAFFLE

Conference Paper · December 2024

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Shantanu Dutta Sandip Majumdar

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 Volume of Abstract, ESMOC 2024
4th Energy System Modeling and Optimization Conference
December 9-11, 2024, NIT Durgapur, India

ESMOC4-30

NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF WATER SLOSHING IN A TANK WITH A FLEXIBLE SOLID

ALUMINIUM BAFFLE

Shantanu Dutta1, Sandip Majumdar2

1
Department of ME, Sanaka educational Trust group of Institutions (Durgapur) West Bengal,
Pin 713212, India, Affiliated to MAKA university of Technology.
2
Elitte college of Engineering, Sodepur, Ghola, Kolkata- 700113 Affiliated to MAKA university
of Technology.
Corresponding author E mail: [email protected], [email protected]

ABSTRACT

This research investigates a multiphase fluid system involving water, air and its influence and behaviour of the thin
aluminium foil which undergoes deformation encompassing in fluid structure interacting study. The study employs a
three-dimensional numerical model developed using COMSOL Multiphysics (version 6.2), utilizing the Arbitrary
Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) framework in conjunction with the Two-Phase Flow, Phase Field interface. The model is
built around a block-shaped enclosure containing a thin aluminium foil structure, positioned centrally, with water
initially occupying the left region and air distributed elsewhere. The simulation tracks the deformation of the fluid
interface as well as the structural displacement of the aluminium foil over time dependent investigation. To manage
the computational complexity of this problem, the study focuses on involving moving mesh deformation specifically
around the aluminium baffle, while the surrounding fluid domain is treated as rigid. This approach allows for a more
efficient simulation without compromising the accuracy of the fluid-structure interaction near the obstacle. The results
provide detailed insights into the pressure distribution surrounding the aluminium foil, the von Mises stress
experienced by the structure, and the temporal variation of the water volume. The findings highlight the significant
influence of the heavier fluid on the structural deformation of the foil and provide crucial data on the interaction
between the fluid flow and the structure. This work serves as a valuable reference for researchers engaged in the study
of FSI in multiphase fluid systems, offering a computational framework for analyzing complex fluid dynamics and
structural responses.

Keywords: Fluid Structure; Finite Element Method; Lagrangian–Eulerian (LE) Technique; Deformation; Von
Mises Stress

1. INTRODUCTION

The term" sloshing" refers to the uncontrollably violent stir of the liquid tank's free face when it's excited by outside
stimulants. Liquid sloshing should be minimized to help structural failure and liquid carrier insecurity since sloshing
convinced loads have the eventuality to damage the tank. The perpendicular and vertical baffles are well-known for
being an important anti-slosh device that effectively suppresses liquid sloshing. First, Abramson[1] delved into the
baffles' capability to help liquid sloshing in the tank both conceptually and experimentally. Also, a wide range of
cocoon configurations, similar to previous (slotted, perforated) baffles and perpendicular, ring, bottom-mounted,
vertical, and face-piercing baffles, have piqued the interest of multitudinous experimenters. Their studies demonstrated
that the right cocoon sizes, forms, figures, and configurations can successfully lessen liquid sloshing. Cho and Kim[2]
did a controlled experimental study and set up that binary perpendicular pervious baffles significantly suppressed
sloshing movements. Wenyuan Wang et al. in their exploration work[3] studied sloshing frequentness, mode shapes,
sloshing millions, and sloshing force and proposed handed advanced delicacy and effectiveness for bluffing complex
sloshing problems in incompletely- filled spherical tanks with multi baffles, considering only the first sloshing mass.

1
The authors also showed that, baffles significantly reduced sloshing response in incompletely filled spherical tanks.
Ünal et al.[4] numerically studied the effect of T- shaped baffles that effectively reduce pressure and surge damping
in liquid sloshing in blockish tanks when their height is lesser than 80 of the liquid position. Reza Saghi et al.[5]
studied a hydroelastic model for the vaticination of sway convinced sloshing loads on flexible trapezoidal and blockish
tanks The authors refocused that the influence of hydroelasticity in a blockish tank may lead to a drop of free-face
oscillations and peak pressure by 20. Cho et al.[6] studied the effect of the flexible pervious elastic cocoon that can
effectively reduce liquid sloshing in persuading/ rolling blockish tanks, but its effectiveness depended on the cocoon's
figure, structural parameters, and landing line stiffness. The authors demonstrated that flexible previous elastic cocoon
reduced liquid sloshing in a blockish tank and the performance of the without cocoon trapezoidal tank as demonstrated
was way better than blockish tank. In another composition, Cho et al.[7] proposed the flexible pervious elastic cocoon
as an anti-slosh device to reduce the liquid sloshing in a persuading/ rolling blockish tank. The logical model was
developed to assess the effectiveness of the pervious elastic cocoon on liquid sloshing and the authors carried out an
experimental study on the vertical pervious baffles at both tank walls significantly suppressing violent reverberative
sloshing responses compared to bones at the tank center, reducing tank wall damage and demonstrated it to be a useful
antislosh device within a limited operation range compared with a rigid cocoon. Multiple baffles in a water tank
effectively reduce hydrodynamic force and sloshing in the tank, with the effect lessening when the relative cocoon
height hb/ hw = 0.75. This controlled experimental study and simulation analysis was carried out by Chu et al.[8]. In
a perceptive work Liu et al[9] developed a numerical model that directly studied three-dimensional liquid sloshing in
tanks with baffles and handed precious perceptivity for designing baffle-free tanks. Jung et al.[10] studied the
perpendicular cocoon height which significantly affected liquid sloshing in a three-dimensional blockish tank, with a
critical height of 0.3 precluding roof impact and limiting sloshing to within half the tank, and studied the pressure
variation, free face elevation. The authors demonstrated that a cocoon height rate of 0.3 averted liquid from reaching
the tank roof. Also, the perpendicular cocoon height significantly affected liquid sloshing in a three-dimensional
blockish tank, with a critical height of 0.3 therefore precluding roof impact and limiting sloshing to within half the
tank.
The above literature review reveals that no work on three dimension fluid structure interaction problem involving
Aluminium Baffle has been addressed in the literature which gives the motivation for this work.

2. MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION AND VALIDATION

Two-phase flow models are widely used to simulate the interaction of two immiscible fluids. The phase-field method
is a robust numerical technique to model the interface between two phases. This method avoids explicitly tracking the
interface but instead represents it using a continuous phase-field variable (ϕ) that smoothly transitions between the
two phases. The Lagrangian-Eulerian framework allows capturing the interface motion in two-phase flow, with the
Eulerian description used for the bulk fluid and the Lagrangian description for tracking particles or interface elements.
In this formulation, we use the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for fluid flow, coupled with the Cahn-Hilliard
equation to capture the interface dynamics.

2.1 Governing Equations

The governing equations for incompressible, viscous flow in a Eulerian framework are given by the Navier-Stokes
equations which follows from [11]:
∇·u = 0 [1]
ρ(∂u/∂t + u·∇u) = -∇p + ∇·μ(∇u + (∇u)ᵀ) + f [2]
2.2 Lagrangian-Eulerian Framework
In this formulation, we use the Eulerian approach for solving the flow field and the Lagrangian approach for tracking
interface or particle motion. The interface is advected by the velocity field u, which is obtained from the Navier-Stokes
equations. The interface evolution follows the Lagrangian trajectory given by:
𝜕𝑥
𝑢(𝑥, 𝑡) [3]
𝜕𝑡

This Lagrangian description ensures accurate tracking of material points or particles along the fluid interface.

2.3 Boundary Conditions

The boundary conditions for the problem include:
- No-slip boundary condition for velocity: u = 0 on the solid boundaries.

2
 - Neumann boundary condition for the phase field: ∇ϕ·n = 0, ensuring no flux of the phase field through the
boundary.
- Pressure boundary conditions for flow outflows: p = 0 at the outflow boundaries

2.4 Validation
In this study, validation is carried out from [12] which involve simulations of velocity and geometry deformation for
the baffle at position 10 μm at t =0 /4sec using the two-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes module within the
microfluidics model of COMSOL Multiphysics (version 6.2). For validation work, we have used a mean input velocity
at the inlet section for various obstructer geometries, and the system is computed for time intervals of t = 01.5, and 4
seconds. The fluid is introduced with an inlet mean velocity of approximately 3.33 cm/s, allowing it to flow in a
steady-state regime. When t = 4 seconds is reached, the system approaches steady-state conditions. Subsequently, the
effects of varying the obstacle's position and the inlet velocity are analyzed to observe the corresponding changes in
the system's behaviour. The validation study showed that simulations were initially performed with a rectangular
obstacle inclined at 25 degrees. The structure was then rotated to 90 degrees, with the inlet at the bottom of the flow
channel. Additionally, different obstacle shapes were analyzed for pressure and flow conditions, After analyzing the
result we can conclude that the adopted numerical method provides reliable results. Due to the page restriction for conference
we only attached the velocity contour portion at time zero second to four seconds for the position of 10 μm.

Validation Fig 1.a) velocity and geometry Reference Fig 2.a) 10 μm at t =0 sec [12]
deformation 10 μm at t =0 sec

Validation Fig 1.b) velocity and geometry Reference Fig 2.b) 10 m at t =4 sec [12]
deformation 10 m at t =4 sec

Table 1:Results comparison between obtained values vs reference values [12].

Si.No Parameters/Position At 10 Inclined Obtained from paper
or Shape μm at 25o numerical
simulation(COMSOL
version 6.2)
1 Fluid pressure(N/m^2) 0.270 0.264 0.275 0.268

2 Viscous drag (m/s) 18.037 61.343 20.31 76.23

3 Maximum 25.74 21.86 30.11 26.23
displacement (mm)
4 Pressure distribution 178.82 84.97 180.23 85.79
(N/m2)
5 Mesh velocity (mm/s) 0.023 0.005 0.08 0.006
6 Mesh displacement 0.0001 0 0.001 0
(mm)

3
 3. NUMERICAL STRATEGY

Design and Mesh Structure:

For designing the block enclosure, we have used COMSOL Multiphysics (version 6.2) fluid structure interaction
model [13]. With the help of this we used the dimensions as mentioned in the table. In the construction we are used 3
domains. And for the meshing structure we used moving mesh with boundary condition no slip. And the material
symmetry was taken isotropic, fluid flow as laminar flow. The material parameters are used as Dynamic viscosity
(Pa·s), Density (kg/m³), Poisson's ratio 1, Young's modulus (Pa), In the table below we exaplain the all mesh
parameters. All steady-state computations have been performed on an AMD Ryzen 5 4600H desktop having a hexa
core with 8 GB RAM and 3.0 GHz processor.
Table 2 : The geometry dimensions are specified in this Fig 3: In this fig we see the actual tank geometry.
table.
Expression Value Description
(mm) (m)
8 0.008 Box height
4 0.004 Box width
20 0.02 Box length
10 0.01 Position of obstacle
0.4 0.0004 Obstacle thickness
8 0.008 Obstacle height
5 0.005 Obstacle width Fig 4: Mesh structure after complete meshing
15 0.015 Initial position of
the interface
Table 3: This table mentioned about the mesh quality for
the geometry.
Description Value
Status Complete mesh
Mesh vertices 25223
Tetrahedra 117929
Pyramids 272
Prisms 8122
Number of elements 126323
Minimum element quality 0.1198
Average element quality 0.6871
Element volume ratio 0.0041351
Mesh volume 500 mm³
Table 4: Mesh sizing
Description Value
Calibrate for Fluid
dynamics Table 5: Material Parameter
Maximum element size 0.474
Minimum element size 0.141 Name Value Unit Property group
Curvature factor 0.6 Density 𝜌solid 1 kg/m³ Basic
Resolution of narrow 0.7 Young's 𝜀 Pa Young's modulus
regions modulus and Poisson's ratio
Maximum element 1.15 Poisson's rato nu 1 Young's modulus
growth rate and Poisson's ratio

4
 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The numerical simulations conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics provide comprehensive insights into the water
sloshing behaviour within a tank containing a flexible aluminium baffle. The results highlight fluid-structure
interactions at various time intervals, fig 5 illustrating the impact of the aluminium obstacle on flow dynamics and
deformation patterns.

Fig 5: Plot of fluid density and Fig 6a: water volume vs Phase field variable
deformed water geometry at 0.5 s Fig 6b: blue and green displacements of the obstacle for 10 50
aluminium alloy obstacles

At 0.5 seconds fig 7, significant deformation of the fluid geometry is observed, driven by the movement of the flexible
baffle. This interaction leads to variations in both fluid velocities and stress distributions throughout the system. The
velocity and pressure profiles show a gradual increase in flow speed and surface pressure near the obstacle, particularly
at 0.1 seconds. By 0.5 seconds, the velocity and pressure distributions stabilize, indicating the system’s approach to a
quasi-steady state.
In fig 8,Von Mises stress analysis reveals that stress concentration occurs initially at the top of the obstacle but

Fig 7: Slide velocity at 0.5 Fig 8 : Von mises stress at t=0.1s

becomes more uniformly distributed as sloshing intensifies. The displacement data further confirm that horizontal
and vertical deformations increase over time, with larger deformations occurring in the aluminium baffle compared to
a stiffer nylon counterpart, underscoring the influence of material properties on sloshing behaviour. Additionally, the
volume fraction analysis demonstrates the redistribution of water and air phases, resulting from sloshing motion,
which affects both structural load and internal pressure. These findings validate the effectiveness of the numerical
method and provide valuable insights into fluid-structure interactions in systems with flexible materials.

Fig 9 a: Face load at 0.1 s Fig 9 b: Face load at 0.5 s

5
 5. CONCLUSIONS
This study successfully modeled fluid-structure interactions (FSI) between sloshing water and a flexible aluminium
baffle using COMSOL Multiphysics (version 6.2). The simulations revealed key behaviours at 0 to 0.5 seconds:
1. Velocity Distribution: In fig 7, High fluid velocities were observed near the baffle, with the obstacle significantly
influencing the flow pattern.
2. Volume Fraction & Displacement: Water accumulation near the baffle caused deformation, with a maximum
displacement of 3 mm, highlighting the structural impact shown in fig 12
3. Pressure Distribution: Localized high-pressure zones formed around the baffle, driving its deformation in fig 11
4. Force on Baffle: In fig 6b,9a,9b, Force fluctuations on the baffle stabilized as the system approached a quasi-
steady state.
These results provide crucial insights into fluid-structure dynamics and validate the effectiveness of the ALE method
in modeling FSI, particularly in systems with flexible structures.

Fig 10: Initial fluid density inside the Fig 11: Surface pressure at 0.5 Fig 12: ( Volume fraction of fluid)
container. The soft aluminium obstacle at time 0.5s
hangs down from the
container and is free to move.
Declaration of competing interest:
The authors affirm that they have no financial interests or personal connections that could have influenced the findings
or conclusions presented in this paper.

References :
[1]Abramson. HN Slosh suppression. NASA Tech Rep SP-8031; 1969.
[2]Cho, I., & Kim, M., Effect of dual vertical porous baffles on sloshing reduction in a swaying rectangular
tank. Ocean Engineering, 126, 364-373, 2016.
[3] Wang, W., Peng, Y., Zhou, Y., & Zhang, Q., Liquid sloshing in partly filled laterally excited cylindrical tanks
equipped with multi baffles. Applied Ocean Research, 59, 543-563, 2016.
[4] Ünal, U., Bilici, G., & Akyıldız, H., Liquid sloshing in a two-dimensional rectangular tank: A numerical
investigation with a T-shaped baffle. Ocean Engineering, 2019.
[5] Saghi, R., Hirdaris. S., & Saghi, H., The influence of flexible fluid structure interactions on sway induced tank
sloshing dynamics, Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, 131, 206-217, 2021.
[6] Cho, I., Liquid sloshing in a swaying/rolling rectangular tank with a flexible porous elastic baffle. Marine
Structures, 75, 102865, 2021.
[7]Cho, I., Choi, J., & Kim, M, Sloshing reduction in a swaying rectangular tank by a horizontal porous baffle. Ocean
Engineering, 138, 23-34, 2017.
[8] Chu, C., Wu, Y., Wu, T., & Wang, C, Slosh-induced hydrodynamic force in a water tank with multiple
baffles. Ocean Engineering, 2018.
[9]Liu, D., & Lin, P. Three-dimensional liquid sloshing in a tank with baffles. Ocean Engineering, 36, 202-212, 2009.
[10] Jung, J., Yoon, H., Lee, C., & Shin, S, Effect of the vertical baffle height on the liquid sloshing in a three-
dimensional rectangular tank. Ocean Engineering, 44, 79-89, 2012.
[11] Souli, M'hamed, and David J. Benson, eds. Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian and fluid-structure interaction:
numerical simulation. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
[12] K.Srinivasa Raoa, K.Girija Sravanib , G.Yugandharc ,G.Venkateswara Raod and V.N.Manie, Design and analysis
of fluid structure interaction in a horizontal Micro Channel, Procedia Materials Science 10 ( 2015 ) 768 – 788, 2015.
[13] Pryor, Roger W., Multiphysics modeling using COMSOL 5 and MATLAB., Mercury learning and information,
2021.

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