Effect of Sinusoidal Rigid-ring Baffle Geometry on Sloshing Dynamics in Long Cylindrical Vessels: A Numerical Study

Abstract

Long Cylindrical Vessels (LCV) usually experience slosh-induced instability arising from oscillations of their fluid content. Flat Rigid-ring Baffle (FRB) commonly used as a slosh-suppression device. Abramson (1966) in LCV but its performance has not appreciably suppressed sloshing thus, necessitating continuous efforts to investigate other baffle configurations. This work was designed to investigate sloshing characteristics numerically of LCV equipped with two types of Rigid-ring baffles of varying geometries namely: Sinusoidal Rigid-ring Baffle-1, 0.04m pitch (SNRB1) and Sinusoidal Rigid-ring Baffle-2, 0.04m pitch (SNRB2).and Flat Rigid-ring Baffle (FRB) as baseline at gravity (g = 9.81 m/s2). Adebayo et al. July (2022), Adebayo et al. December (2022) and Adebayo et al. August (2025). Continuity and Navier-Stokes Equations were used as model governing equations which were developed and solved using Finite Element Analysis technique Mohan, A. (2014), to obtain pressure and velocity which were used to evaluate forces at the cylinder’s wall. These parameters were used to evaluate Damping Ratio (DR) of each baffle at (72, 66 and 59) % standard positions, in a 75% Water-filled Cylinder (WCC) having slenderness ratio of 1.5 excited at frequency of 2 Hz. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ANOVA at α 0.05. The results showed that Sinusoidal Rigid-ring Baffle has higher damping characteristics than other baffles geometries at (72 and 59) % water-filled positions of the cylinder.