Characterization of Liquid Sloshing in U-Shaped Container with Submerged Cylinder to be Used as Dampers for Structural Vibration Control

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of a submerged cylinder on the sloshing responses in a partially filled U-shaped container. The movable cylinder is placed at the horizontal portion of a U-shaped container, which can move along with the liquid. This study further investigates the vibration control capability of the system for long period structures under dynamic loads. Besides experimental study, to understand the dynamic characteristics of the system, numerical simulations are also carried out on an ANSYS version 18.0 (FLUENT) platform using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) framework. The fluid flow inside the container is modeled using the volume of fluid (VOF) method. The variation of sloshing induced interface movement with the cylinder’s length and diameter is studied. It is found that an increase in the cylinder’s length or diameter increases the overall damping capability of the container. In addition, as a damper in reducing response of a single degree of freedom (SDOF) structural frame under harmonic and earthquake loads, the device shows great efficiency.