An investigation of the effect of elastic membrane on liquid sloshing in partially filled tank vehicles

Roll plane fluid slosh within a partly-filled tank with an elastic membrane restraining the free surface is investigated through development of a two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic and fluid-structure interaction (CFD-FSI) model. The air-membrane-liquid interaction analysis is performed to investigate effect of the membrane on the liquid cargo movement. Laboratory experiments were conducted on a circular tank with an elastic membrane-like restraint under harmonic lateral acceleration excitations. The validity of the CFD-FSI model is demonstrated on the basis of the laboratory-measured responses. The effectiveness of the membrane in limiting the fluid slosh is illustrated by comparing simulation results obtained for a circular tank with and without the membrane. It is shown that addition of the membrane could yield substantial reduction in the fluid cargo motion and thus roll moment, while increasing the fundamental slosh frequency by more than two times that obtained for the cleanbore tank.