Propellant sloshing can impart unwanted disturbances to spacecraft, especially if the spacecraft controller is driving the system at the slosh frequency. This paper describes the work performed by the authors in simulating propellant slosh in a spherical tank using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). ANSYS-CFX is the CFD package used to perform the analysis. A 42 in spherical tank is studied with various fill fractions. Results are provided for the forces on the walls and the frequency of the slosh. Snapshots of slosh animation give a qualitative understanding of the propellant slosh. The results show that maximum slosh forces occur at a tank fill fraction of 0.4 and 0.6 due to the amount of mass participating in the slosh and the room available for sloshing to occur. The slosh frequency increases as the tank fill fraction increases.
Method for CFD Simulation of Propellant Slosh in a Spherical Tank
2011
7 pages
Report
No indication
English
Fluid Mechanics , Rocket Engines & Motors , Space Launch Vehicles & Support Equipment , Computational fluid dynamics , Liquid sloshing , Spherical tanks , Control simulation , Propellant tanks , Spacecraft stability , Fuel tanks , Spacecraft control , Propellants , Storage tanks , Cryogenic fluid storage , Nonlinear systems
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