Simulation of nonlinear liquid sloshing under low-gravity environment

The numerical simulation of three-dimensional large amplitude liquid sloshing under low gravity environment is discussed in this paper. The ALE (Arbitrary Lagrange-Euler) kinematics description is introduced into the Finite element fractional step method. The corresponding discrete numerical equations are developed by Galerkin weighted residual method afterwards. The formulations to calculate the free-surface tension are derived. Three-dimensional large amplitude fuel sloshing under low gravity environment in a cylindrical tank is simulated and some important nonlinear characteristics of three-dimensional nonlinear liquid sloshing are obtained. The numerical results are compared with experimental results and the effectiveness of the method conducted in this paper is demonstrated.