Numerical Simulations of Sloshing and the Thermodynamic Response Due to Mixing

Abstract

In this paper, we apply computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to study the thermodynamic response enhanced by sloshing inside liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuel tanks. An existing numerical solver provided by OpenFOAM is used to simulate sloshing in a model scaled tank of similar form to an LNG fuel tank. The interface area has been estimated for different sloshing regimes on three different numerical grids representing the tank in 3D. Estimating the interface area is done by performing a grid-independence study. In the most severe sloshing conditions, convergence is not achieved. By combining the results from experiments and CFD, it is found that the interface area and the condensation mass flow rate are in phase for the most severe sloshing condition. The existing CFD solver is modified to determine the pressure drop. The simulation results are compared to the experimental data, and the results are acceptable and thereby show a potential in applying CFD to predict the thermodynamic response due to sloshing. By plotting the temperature contours, indications are found that the exchange of cold bulk and saturated liquid due to sloshing has a significant influence on the thermodynamic response.