Andreas Aigner, Stefan Pirker, Gerald Wimmer,
"Experimental and numerical investigation of sloshing resonance phenomena in a spring-mounted rectangular tank"
: 12th International Conference on Multiphase Flow in Industrial Plants, 9-2011
Original Titel:
Experimental and numerical investigation of sloshing resonance phenomena in a spring-mounted rectangular tank
Sprache des Titels:
Englisch
Original Buchtitel:
12th International Conference on Multiphase Flow in Industrial Plants
Original Kurzfassung:
The sloshing motion of a liquid in chemical processing vessels might cause operational problems especially in case the characteristic sloshing mode?s frequencies coincide with the structural eigenfrequency of the vessel?s suspension system. In very unfavourable cases a frequency modulation type of resonance ? i.e. a periodically swelling and decaying of the structural loads ? is observed.
Motivated by sloshing phenomena in a steelmaking converter this study focuses on a simplified substitute system. Instead of the complex vessel geometry a rectangular tank is considered. This tank is mounted on a spring controlled seesaw in order to mimic the steel converter?s suspension system.
In the course of experiments on (a) collapsing water column in a fixed tank, (b) gas injection induced sloshing in a fixed tank as well as (c) initial excitation induced sloshing in a spring mounted tank and finally, (d) gas injection induced sloshing in a spring mounted tank are performed. In case of the spring mounted tank experiments the reason of the frequency modulation resonance phenomenon which can occur in industrial plants can be clearly demonstrated.
Finally, the experimental findings are substantiated by corresponding unsteady three-dimensional multiphase flow simulations. Thereby, an Eulerian Volume of Fluid (VOF) model is coupled with a Lagrangian model describing the bubble swarm behaviour. Turbulence is modelled by a multiphase version of the Smagorinsky Large Eddy Model (LES) and the converter motion is covered by an Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) approach. In principle the predictions of this comprehensive numerical model agree very well with the experiments with respect to the sloshing modes? frequencies and the fluid ? structure resonance phenomenon. Anyhow, the sloshing motion is artificially damped by numerical viscosity.