Nonlinear Liquid Sloshing Analysis in a Cylindrical Container by Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian Approach

The solution to a liquid sloshing problem is challenge to the field of engineering. This is not only because the dynamic boundary condition at the free surface is nonlinear, but also because the position of the free surface varies with time in a manner not known a priori. Therefore, this nonlinear phenomenon, which is characterized by the oscillation of the unrestrained free surface of the fluid, is a difficult mathematical problem to solve numerically and analytically. In this study, three-dimensional boundary element method(BEM), which is based on the so-called an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian(ALE) approach for the fluid flow problems with a free surface, was formulated to solve the behavior of the nonlinear free surface motion. An ALE-BEM has the advantage to track the free surface along any prescribed paths by using only one displacement variable, even for a three-dimensional problem. Also, some numerical examples were presented to demonstrate the validity and the applicability of the developed procedure.