Fluid–structure interaction in partially filled liquid containers: A comparative review of numerical approaches

This paper describes recent studies devoted to the problem of modeling the solid–fluid interaction in partially filled liquid containers. This problem is of much importance for numerous applications, including those in the airspace industry (rockets, satellites), road and naval transportation, and has become in recent years an object of keen interest from researchers. The paper focuses in particular on the sloshing phenomenon and on the numerical approaches used to predict the sloshing wave amplitude, frequency, pressure exerted on the walls and the effect of sloshing on the stability in the container environment. Recent publications devoted to sloshing and fluid–structure interaction are reviewed and the numerical methods used in then are exposed and classified according to the problem formulations employed. They concern primarily finite-elements and finite-differences methods applied to Euler or Lagrangian fluid and solid domains, as well as the smoothed particle method. Issues related to modeling the free-surface of the fluid, fluid–solid interface and to numerical coupling are exposed. Results obtained by various numerical methods are discussed in comparison with experimental results, where possible. Applications of sloshing models in naval, aerospace and other industries are described and discussed.