Experimental study on flow kinematics and impact pressure in liquid sloshing

Abstract This paper experimentally studied flow kinematics and impact pressure of a partially filled liquid sloshing flow produced by the periodic motion of a rectangular tank. The study focused on quantifying the flow velocities and impact pressures induced by the flow. Filled with water at a 30 % filling ratio, the tank oscillated at a resonant frequency and generated the violent sloshing flow. The flow propagated like breaking waves that plunged on both side walls and formed up-rushing jets that impacted on the top wall. Velocities of the multiphase flow were measured using the bubble image velocimetry technique. A total of 15 pressure sensors were mounted on the top wall and a side wall to measure the impact pressures. The local kinetic energy obtained by the measured local velocities was used to correlate with the corresponding pressures and determine the impact coefficient. In the sloshing flow, the flow direction was dominantly horizontal in the same direction of the tank motion before the wave crest broke and impinged on a side wall. At this stage, the maximum flow velocities reached 1.6C with C being the wave phase speed. After the wave impingement, the uprising jet moved in the vertical direction with a maximum velocity reached 3.6C before it impacted on the top wall. It was observed that the impact coefficients differed by almost one order of magnitude between the side wall impact and the top wall impact, mainly due to the large difference between the local velocities. A nearly constant impact coefficient was found for both side wall and top wall impacts if the impact pressures were directly correlated with the flow kinetic energy calculated using C instead of the local velocities.