The effect of fluid compressibility on the simulation of sloshing impacts

Resonant and near-resonant sway-induced sloshing flow in a rectangular container is used to compare various combinations of compressibility models for air and water. The numerical model is implemented in a commercial RANS computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. A criterion based on wave propagation is developed to assess the importance of including fluid compressibility. For sloshing flows with low levels of fluid impact, this can be simulated with incompressible fluid models for both air and water. When modelling sloshing at low-filling levels with a travelling wave, which generates large air bubble entrainment, the choice of fluid compressibility model is shown to have a significant influence on pressure magnitude and frequency of oscillation required for structural assessment. Further comparisons with theoretical models show that a full thermal energy compressibility model is also required.