A numerical investigation of energy dissipation with a shallow depth sloshing absorber

Abstract A liquid sloshing absorber consists of a container, partially filled with liquid. The absorber is attached to the structure to be controlled, and relies on the structure’s motion to excite the liquid. Consequently, a sloshing wave is produced at the liquid free surface within the absorber, possessing energy dissipative qualities. The behaviour of liquid sloshing absorbers has been well documented, although their use in structural control applications has attracted considerably less attention. Generally it is accepted that sloshing absorbers with shallow liquid levels are more effective energy dissipaters than those with higher levels, although there has not yet been a study to reveal an ‘optimum’ design mechanism. The main limitation of numerically modelling such circumstances is the inherent complexity in the free surface behaviour, predictions of which are limited when using grid-based modelling techniques. Considering such limitations, Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is used in this study to model a 2-dimensional rectangular liquid sloshing absorber. SPH is a Lagrangian method of solving the equations of fluid flow that is suitable to model liquid sloshing due to its grid-free nature, and inherent ability to deal with complex free surface behaviour. The primary objective of this paper is to numerically demonstrate the effect of tuning a container’s width, to complement previous work on the effect of liquid depth [B. Guzel, M. Prakash, S.E. Semercigil, O.F. Turan, Energy dissipation with sloshing for absorber design, in: International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, 2005, IMECE2005-79838]. This study is an attempt to reveal geometry that enables both effective energy transfer to sloshing liquid and to dissipate this energy quickly.