Modeling Fuel Tank Draining/Sloshing in a Typical Transiently Accelerating Vehicle using GT-SUITE for Reliable Tank Designing

Draining and fuel starvation prediction is of critical importance in designing and approving fuel tanks. Simulation of fluid dynamics to predict draining of a moving tank having multiple fuel compartments and multiple ports is, however, challenging. This is because the dynamics involve multiple fluids which follow distinct thermodynamics - compressible air at the top and nearly incompressible fuel below it. Moreover, for a typical vehicle accelerating transiently in a general trajectory (road profile), the surface angle keeps changing which leads to dynamic fuel covering/uncovering of interior as well as outlet ports. Simulation of these effects often requires 3D multiphase solution, which is computationally expensive especially when it is required to model additional fluid systems such as fuel pipes and jet pumps. We present fast and efficient modeling and simulation of tank draining using the 0D/1D framework of GT-SUITE. The flexibility and robustness of the inbuilt flow solver allows accurate solution of the associated multiphase flow dynamics. Furthermore, the software is geometrically flexible to capture the surface angle variations (sloshing) inside complicated 3D shaped tanks in a moving vehicle and allows for the representation of other system-level components (such as fuel lines and pumps) in the same simulation model.