Hydrodynamic forces induced by transient sloshing in a 3D rectangular tank due to oblique horizontal excitation

A time-independent finite difference method is developed to simulate fluid sloshing in a three-dimensional tank. The developed numerical scheme is verified by the rigorous benchmark tests. The experiment measurement of liquid sloshing in a 3D tank was also carried out in this study to further validate the accuracy of the present numerical results. Transient waves can change their types naturally in the time domain, especially for a tank excited by resonant frequencies. In this study, if the excitation frequencies are far from the fundamental natural frequency and there are four types of stable sloshing waves discovered due to the oblique horizontal excitation: “diagonal”, “single-directional”, “square-like”, and “irregular” waves. Besides, the swirling waves can only be generated for a partially-filled tank excited at near resonant frequency with oblique horizontal excitation. The evolution of forces induced by different sloshing waves acting on the tank walls is calculated and discussed in this work. In addition, the dynamics of sloshing force induced by swirling waves are explored in detail. The force of the single-directional waves acting on the tank bottom is time-invariant but the other types of sloshing waves show a beating phenomenon which is attributed to the momentum flux across the free surface and the vertical inertia of sloshing fluid. The effect of various oblique excitation directions of the tank on liquid sloshing is discussed as well. The horizontal hydrodynamic force of sloshing waves acting on the mid-section of the left wall of the tank is dominated by the added mass effect if the external excitation frequency is larger than 4 times the lowest natural frequency ( ω 1 ) of the tank with partially-filled fluid. On the other hand, the wave elevation of sloshing waves plays a key effect on the horizontal sloshing-induced force when the excitation frequency of the tank is less than 4 ω 1 . A novel mechanism is presented to describe the phenomenon of alternate switch directions of the swirling waves. The relationship between the external force and the sloshing hydrodynamic force is the major factor to trigger the switch direction of the swirling waves. The influence of different base ratios of a rectangular tank on kinematic and dynamic responses of sloshing fluid is also explored in this work.