Design & Analysis of Tanker for Reduction of Sloshing Effects

Sloshing has widespread applications in many industries including automotive, aerospace, ship building and motorcycle manufacturing. The need for sloshing study is mainly to accept the challenge for transportation of partially filled tanker. The goal of sloshing simulation is first to study the sloshing pattern and then improve the tank design to reduce stresses on the tanker surfaces and optimize the baffle arrangements. In this work, simulation of the LPG in tank is studied and the design modification with baffle plate is considered to minimize the sloshing phenomena using ALE method. Also it is explained that there is strong need to analyze the sloshing phenomena in detail. Arbitrary Langrangian Eulerian finite element methods gain interest for the capability to control mesh geometry independently from material geometry, the ALE methods are used to create a new undistorted mesh for the fluid domain. In this work we used the ALE technique to solve fluid structure interaction problem. LPG slosh is an important design consideration not only for the transportation tanker, but also for the structure supporting the tanker. Sloshing can be generated by many ways: abrupt changes in acceleration (braking), as well as abrupt changes in direction (highway exit-ramp). Repetitive motion can also be involved if a sloshing resonance is generated. These sloshing events can in turn affect the overall performance of the parent structure. A finite element analysis method has been developed to analyze this complex event. A new ALE formulation for the fluid mesh can be used to keep the fluid mesh integrity during the motion of the tank. In this work, LPG sloshing analysis is done with various iterations in terms of enclosed baffle and suggested modified baffle. Then simulation is carried out to get affective parameters like pressure and velocity generation over period of time. These parameters are plotted in graphical nature to compare results of each iteration. Finally, selected modified baffle is analyzed for Sloshing pressure to get safe thickness and proper baffle shape is recommended for reducing sloshing effects. The tanker used for the transportation of liquid over the road-ways is an integral part of the Carrier/ Vehicle. The tanker is expected to withstand the unbalanced forces on account of the transit over uneven and irregular surfaces/ contours of the road as also due to sudden acceleration or deceleration (due to application of brakes). As a result, `sloshing' of the liquid is experienced within the tanker. Different aspects of analyses are necessary to design the tanker but sloshing analysis is also one of the prominent aspects for reducing its detrimental effects over structure of tanker. Sloshing can be the result of external forces due to acceleration/deceleration of the containment body. Of particular concern is the pressure distribution on the wall of the container reservoir and its local temporal peaks that can reach as in road tankers twice the rigid load value. In road tankers, the free liquid surface may experience large excursions for even very small motions of the container leading to stability problems. Analysis of the sloshing motion of a contained liquid is of great practical importance. Motion of a fluid can persist beyond application of a direct load to the container; the inertial load exerted by the fluid is time-dependent and can be greater than the load exerted by a solid of the same mass. This makes analysis of sloshing especially important for transportation and storage tanks. Due to its dynamic nature, sloshing can strongly affect performance and behavior of transportation vehicles, especially tankers filled with oil. In fact, a significant amount of research has gone into developing numerical models for predicting fluid behavior under various loads. Hence liquid sloshing is a practical problem with regard to the safety of transportation systems, such as oil tankers on highways, liquid tank cars on railroads, oceangoing vessels with liquid cargo, propellant tank used in satellites and other spacecraft vehicles, and several others.