Author/Authors :
Yang, W. J State Key Laboratory of High Performance Computing - College of Computer - National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China , Zhang, T. T State Key Laboratory of High Performance Computing - College of Computer - National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China , Li, C State Key Laboratory of High Performance Computing - College of Computer - National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China , Li, S. M State Key Laboratory of High Performance Computing - College of Computer - National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China , Xu, X. H National Innovation Institute of Defense Technology (NIIDT), Beijing, China
Abstract :
In this paper, the fluid characteristics of pitching sloshing under microgravity condition are investigated. A
numerical method by solving the Navier-Stokes equations to study three-dimensional (3-D) nonlinear liquid
sloshing is developed with OpenFOAM, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool. The computational
method is validated against existing experimental data in rectangular tank under ordinary gravitational field.
However under low gravity conditions, the sloshing liquid shows seemingly chaotic behavior and a
considerable volume of liquid attaches on the sidewall due to the effect of surface tension, which is verified in
simulation experiment. Besides, the nonlinear liquid behaviors in hemi-spherically bottom tank are firstly
studied in this paper. It is found that the wave evolution becomes divergent with the decrease of gravitational
acceleration. The natural frequency reaches a constant magnitude quickly with the increase of liquid height and
then increases again until the filling level exceeds 70%. Meanwhile, the liquid dynamics of forced pitching
sloshing under resonant and off-resonant condition are demonstrated respectively. The numerical techniques
for 3-D simulation are hopeful to provide valuable guidance for efficient liquid management in space.
Keywords :
VOF method , Pitching , Three-dimensional simulation , Liquid sloshing , Microgravity
