Fluid Structure Interaction Simulation of Fuel Tank Sloshing

Sloshing of a partially filled fuel tank subjected to braking is studied using uni-directional fluid structure interaction approach using commercial solvers, SC/Tetra and Abaqus. The simulation uses co-simulation engine from simulia which allows the data transfer between the two solvers smoothly without any need for additional programing or third party software. Two braking scenarios heavy and mild braking and two levels of filling in the tank, 53% full and 40 % full are considered in the study. In this study water was used instead of fuel. The study compares the force acting on the fuel tank and is found to have the same trend as the mechanism that triggers the sloshing. The study also compared the deformation of the node located on one of the two tank chambers and found that the deformation of a node on the tank did not change much for the given braking scenario with the changing water levels. The simulation yields time dependent node deformation information of the tank model which can be used in noise analysis. The simulation also shows that the deformation of the structure is small and hence will have no impact on the fluid.