2021 International Conference on Applied and Engineering Mathematics (ICAEM)
Sloshing Analysis of a Supersonic Fuel Tank of an
Aircraft
Farrukh Iqbal Ali Javed
College of Aeronautical College of Aeronautical
Engineering, NUST Engineering, NUST
Risalpur, Pakistan Risalpur, Pakistan
awanfarrukh@yahoo.com salijav@hotmail.com
2021 International Conference on Applied and Engineering Mathematics (ICAEM) | 978-1-6654-1303-9/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICAEM53552.2021.9547074
Abstract— This paper presents sloshing analysis of fuel in
a supersonic aircraft’s fuel tank. Sloshing can be defined as the
movement of a fluid inside a moving tank. Sloshing
phenomenon is of great significance since it is involved in
various fields such as propellant slosh in rockets, aircraft,
cargo ships and also the trucks that carry different type of
fluids. Sloshing occurs when a fluid containing body suddenly
accelerates or decelerates that in turn leads to unnecessary
vibrations, flammability, noise and structural failure. To
reduce the sloshing effects, anti-slosh baffles are employed in
the fuel tanks or any other fluid containing body. Baffles are
the obstructions installed inside the fuel tank that absorb the
kinetic energy of the waves and reduce the sloshing impact by
lowering down the momentum of generated waves. In this
research, Volume of Fluid Model has been used for
Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis. After the analytical
and experimental validation of the model, free surface
behavior of sloshed liquid has been analyzed under different
operating conditions. For experimental results, a commonly
used water tank has been used to track the liquid interface
under the application of an external force. Effectiveness of
baffles has been studied by calculating the pressure forces on
the walls of a fuel tank for both baffled and an un-baffled tank.
It has been observed that baffles reduce the pressure forces to
almost one tenth in the present case. Reaction forces at the tank
mounts have been calculated by carrying out structural
analysis of the supersonic fuel tank. Settling time is the time
required for the sloshing waves to damp down and the said
time for different fill levels and excitation forces has been
calculated in the present research. Different cases of
acceleration and fuel-fill levels have been taken to study the
varying sloshing forces with time. This paper presents a
detailed sloshing analysis along with a qualitative and
quantitative study that is supported by analytical and
experimental results.
Keywords—Sloshing, Fuel Tank, Baffles, Volume of Fluid
(VOF) Model, Structural Analysis, Fluent, Partially filled.
I. INTRODUCTION
Sloshing is defined as the movement of a fluid inside a
moving object. Sloshing has a lot of applications in design of
fuel tanks, ships and space vehicles and containers for
transporting liquids on highways, storage tanks and dams. A
high impact pressure, that is localized, is created on the walls
that in turn leads to crack formations leading to structural
damage. It also creates sufficient moment and hence affects
the stability of the vehicle. So, in the design phase of any
storage tank, sloshing effects need to be considered before
finalizing the structure and geometry of that tank. Sloshing
978-1-6654-1303-9/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE
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Aamer Shahzad
College of Aeronautical
Engineering, NUST
Risalpur, Pakistan
a.shahzad@cae.nust.edu.pk
in a fuel tank leads to acoustic noise, low fuel level
management and structural vibrations. Understanding the
liquid sloshing in a partially-filled tank can help a designer
to minimize the sloshing effects in the design process.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Researchers have been interested in the prediction of
liquid’s free surface motion in the last few decades and
studies related to liquid sloshing have been presented. Eddie
and Francis [1] developed Marker and Cell (MAC) method,
that was centered on finite difference approach to learn
dynamics of incompressible fluid by free surface. Nichols
and Hirt [2], developed fractional volume of fluid (VOF)
technique for tracing complex free surface motion of
incompressible fluid. Ibrahim [3] and Abramson [4] worked
on numerical, analytical and experimental studies for liquid
sloshing in cylindrical, rectangular, spherical and elliptical
containers. Thomas [5] provided mixed Langrangian-
Eulerian formulation for modeling fluid structure problem
interaction and fluid of free-surface of liquid.
Amplitude of the generated waves, resulting from the
sloshing, depends on the type of motion, properties of a
liquid, geometry of the tank, frequency and amplitude of
external excitation and tank fill levels [6]. Improper design
of fuel tanks leads to violent sloshing. Design of fuel tank
can be improved significantly by the addition of anti- slosh
baffles [8]. Baffles are thin surfaces that reduce sloshing by
absorbing the fluid energy when the fluid interacts with
them in an accelerated motion. Damping effect is created by
the baffles when they face the flow and hence reduce the
kinetic energy of the fluid which means that the velocity gets
lowered [8]. Types of baffles consist of horizontal and
vertical middle baffles, porous baffles, slotted baffles and
floating baffles. There is another type of baffle known as
ring baffle; it not only decreases the impact velocity of the
fluid at the walls, but also suppresses the vertical motion of
the fuel or a liquid and hence the wave amplitude is
suppressed [9]. Sloshing in a fuel tank of an aircraft
generally occurs during maneuvering, braking of the aircraft
and while flying in turbulent regions.
Computational Fluid Dynamics has played a vital role in
understanding the sloshing behaviour of a liquid for a
number of cases like acceleration & deceleration, liquids
with different properties and geometries with complicated
 2021 International Conference on Applied and Engineering Mathematics (ICAEM)

baffle’s design. For this purpose, there are a number of baffles, that is accelerating with an acceleration of a z=1.5g.
techniques available that include Finite Element Method Following are the governing equations for an
approach, Langrangian Eulerian formulation and Volume of incompressible and two immiscible fluids in a rigid
Fluid method. VOF method is very robust and flexible when rectangular tank, that mainly constitute continuity equation
it is compared with the other models that are used for the and the conservation of momentum equation [10]
simulation of a free surface movement. VOF can account for
splashing and overturning waves, complicated geometries ∆. 𝑉 = 0
and baffles of complex shapes. 𝜕𝑣
𝜌 ( 𝜕𝑡 + 𝑣. 𝛥𝑣) = −𝛻𝑃 + 𝜌𝜇(𝛻. 𝛻)𝑣
III. PROBLEM DEFINITION
To analyze the slosh dynamics of a fuel tank accelerating where
at 2.5 g, 4g and 5.5 g with various fill levels. v is the velocity of a fluid (m/s),
P is the pressure of fluid used (N/m2),
IV. METHODOLOGY ρ is the density (kg/m3),
Keeping in view the complexity of the problem, research  is the viscosity (Ns/m2)
is carried out in two phases:
A. Phase 1 For a rigid tank that is subjected to a constant acceleration,
each fluid element inside the tank experiences same
In phase 1, determination of solution scheme and flow acceleration. It can be established that fluid velocity is
parameters is carried out by the analysis of simpler and function of time but not the position. Hence above equation
baffle-less tanks along with the analytical solution. can be written as follows.
𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝑝 𝜕𝑝
B. Phase 2 𝑑𝑝 = − 𝑑𝑥 + 𝑑𝑦 + 𝑑𝑧
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦 𝜕𝑧
Implementation of the solution scheme on the baffled
geometry of fuel tank and simulation of generated waves at
three different acceleration profiles was carried out in this Substituting the results from previous equations into the
phase. Reaction forces on the tank mounts was calculated above Eq, we get
and a comparative study is conducted at the later part of
phase 2. 𝑑𝑝 = 𝜌[𝑖. (𝑔 − 𝑎)𝑑𝑥 + 𝑗. (𝑔 − 𝑎)𝑑 + 𝑘. (𝑔 − 𝑎)𝑑𝑧]

V. GEOMETRY Integrating the above equation gives the following eq.

Initially four geometries were modeled that are shown as
follows: 𝑝 − 𝑝𝑜 = 𝜌[𝐴𝑥(𝑥 − 𝑥𝑜) + 𝐴𝑦(𝑦 − 𝑦𝑜) + 𝐴𝑧(−𝑧𝑜)],

where
p = pressure required at the coordinates (x, y and z)
po= pressure at the known coordinates (xo, yo and zo)
Ax= Net value of acceleration in x-axis
Ay = Net value of acceleration in y-axis
and Az = Net value of acceleration of fluid in z-axis.

Fig.1. Tank without baffles Fig.2. Tank with one baffle Hence the pressure acting on free surface is given by:

p [x, Ys (z, x), z] = po [𝐴𝑥(𝑥 − 𝑥𝑜) + 𝐴𝑦(𝑦 − 𝑦𝑜) +

𝐴𝑧(𝑧 − 𝑧𝑜)]

When the fluid is given an acceleration in forward direction,

the fluid moves backwards that generates a sloshing wave
which settles down with time depending on the magnitude
Fig.3. Tank with two baffles Fig.4. Tank with three baffles of excitation. Position of the interface between the fuel and
air are shown in the following figure.
VI. ASSUMPTIONS AND OPERATING CONDITIONS
It is assumed that tank is rigid. ; gravity is considered;
operating pressure is taken as 101325 Pa. Multiphase-VOF
model is used in which primary phase is air and secondary
phase is JP-8 fuel. No-slip condition at walls is implemented
and the acceleration is taken in the z-direction.
VII. ANALYTICAL SOLUTION FOR THE
RECTANGULAR TANK
As the case of sloshing is quite complex, so this Fig.5. An accelerated tank. (L= 2 m, ho = 0.5 m)
analytical solution is only for the rectangular tank, without

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 2021 International Conference on Applied and Engineering Mathematics (ICAEM)

Dotted line shows the position of interface at t = 0 seconds

while solid inclined line shows the instantaneous position of
interface at t seconds. For a constant tank acceleration along
x-axis, the acceleration of liquid along the axes can be
expressed as

Az =0 –az = -az ,
Ax= 0 and Ay = -g. Now Eq. becomes
-az (z-zo)-g(Ys-Yo) = 0
𝑎𝑧
Ys = Yo 𝑔 (z-zo) ------------ (A) Fig.8: Tank with 3 baffles (t = 5sec)

Law of Conservation of mass is used to locate the interface It can be established that use of baffles reduces the settling
coordinates, that is, mass of the fluid in a tank remains time. In the case of simple tank, at t = 5 seconds, a violent
constant. turbulent movement of fluid can still be seen. Whereas in
the tank with baffles, fluid has reached almost its steady
𝐿 state.
hoL = ∫0 𝑌𝑠 𝑑𝑧
𝐿 𝑎𝑧
From these figures, we deduce that in the tank without
hoL = ∫0 [𝑌𝑜 − 𝑔
(𝑧 − 𝑧𝑜)] 𝑑𝑧 baffles, sloshing effects are more than that in the tank
Yo=ho +
𝑎𝑧
(L/2-zo) without baffles. Hence, it can be established that use of
𝑔 baffles reduces the sloshing phenomenon to a greater
Substituting the value of Yo into eq. (A) extent.
𝑎𝑧
Ys=ho + 𝑔
(L/2-z) [10] B. Effect of the no. of baffles on sloshing
In this section, effect of increasing the baffles on
where Ys is the function of free surface of liquid. The above- sloshing is discussed. A tank model was solved in Fluent
mentioned equation evaluates the height of liquid surface for an acceleration of 1.5g in negative z-direction.
obtained because of sloshing inside a tank when it is Following figures show the interface location at 0.5
subjected to constant acceleration along z-axis. seconds.
VIII. CFD RESULTS
A. Study on the baffled and unbaffled tanks
For the previously mentioned geometries, total of 14
iterations were done. However due to limitation of space
only two cases are discussed i.e. (a) without baffles (b) with
baffles (number of baffles =3)
All the figures that are shown in this section show the liquid
interface at different time intervals.
Fig.9. Tank with one baffle (t = 0.5sec)

Fig.10. Tank with two baffles (t = 0.5sec)

Fig.6: At t = 0 second
Shown above is a partially filled container. When it is given
an acceleration of 1.5g in negative z-direction, due to inertia
the fluid will move in positive z-direction.
Fig.7: Tank without baffles (t = 5sec)
By increasing the number of baffles from one to two,
sloshing becomes less violent as it can be seen from the fig.9
and fig.10. Hence, it can be established that increasing the
number of baffles decreases the sloshing of fluid. This is
because the first baffle absorbs fluid’s kinetic energy when
the fluid interacts with it, and while interacting with the
second baffle, kinetic energy would be further reduced and
hence the fluid velocity decreases.
C. Theoretical validation of CFD Solution
In the present case:
ho=0.5 m
az=1.5 m/s2
g=9.8 m/ s2

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 2021 International Conference on Applied and Engineering Mathematics (ICAEM)

L=2 m
Using these initial values, the height of free surface can
be shown as a function of the length along the tank. Same
can be expressed in graphical form as follows:
to track the liquid interface for the validation of VOF model.
Same experiment was simulated in Fluent and the
corresponding results of experiment and CFD are as
follows: -

Fig.14. Initial state (t = 0 sec)

Fig.11. Relation between Ys and z

Similar case was simulated in Fluent and its CFD result is

shown as follows:
Fig.15. Results at t = 1 sec

Z=1.25
Fig.16. Results at t = 4 sec

Fig.12. CFD Result showing the location of interface After performing this procedure on simpler geometry, the
research project has been driven to a slightly complicated
From the graph between interface height and length of the geometry for final analysis.
tank, it is seen that for the given tank, interface height
should be zero at z = 1.31 meters and should be maximum IX. ACTUAL GEOMETRY
at z = 0. This was the result of analytical solution. However Shown below is the structural model of the fuel tank.
by analyzing the CFD results, it can be seen that the
interface height is zero at z = 1.25 meters whereas
analytical results have shown this height to be equal to 1.31
meters. There is an error of 4.58%. This is because of
iterative convergence error and computer round-off errors.
Moreover, it is a numerical method and an exact solution
may not be obtained.
D. Experimental validation of CFD solution
For the experimental verification of volume of fluid
model, a commonly used water container is used and its 3D
CAD model is designed in ANSYS, Design Modeler.
Fig.17. Baffles inside the fuel tank

When the model was imported to Fluent for the analysis of

Fig.13. Actual and 3D CAD model of container
For tracking the fluid interface, Arduino, UNO GY-521 and
SD card module were used. The experiment was conducted
fluid dynamics, lot of complexities and errors were
encountered. It was realized that the geometry needed to be
remodeled by removing all the structural intricacies that do
not affect the flow of a fuel inside the fuel tank.
X. MESHING
Grid independence was carried out to determine the
minimum amount of mesh size to capture most of the
features. The time step independence was also conducted
to determine an appropriate time step size for simulations.

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 2021 International Conference on Applied and Engineering Mathematics (ICAEM)
Fig. 18. Grid Independence
Changing the grid size from 0.19 to 0.25 million, the
change in result was only 0.128 % and it further decreased.
So, 0.19 million mesh was taken for further study
Fig. 19. Time-step Independence
Changing the time step from 50 microseconds to 5
microseconds, the difference in result was just 0.38 %. So,
50 microseconds time step was selected. Hence, after this
study, mesh of size 0.19 million and time step of size 5e-5
sec was selected.
XI. BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
Important boundary conditions are listed as follows: -
Baffles: wall,
Fuel tank walls: No slip condition (wall),
and slicing plane (zx plane): plane of symmetry
XII. RESULTS
At the peak pressure value, structural analysis was carried
to see the stress picture and calculate the reaction forces at
the mount.
Fig. 20. Stress picture obtained after the structural analysis.
Table 1: Reaction forces at the mount.
x-comp y-comp z-comp
171.2 (kN) 41 (kN) 45.8 (kN)
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Further results are discussed as follows:
Fig. 21. Pressure forces on all baffles
From the graph the pressure on the first baffle is the most
and the pressure on the last baffle is the least. Reason behind
this is that the mass of liquid that sloshes at baffle one is
very large as compared to the mass of liquid that sloshes at
the fourth baffle. According to Newton first law of motion;
F = ma; more the mass, higher will be the force required to
accelerate or decelerate it.
Fig. 22. Pressure forces at different fill levels
Above is the graph between 40 % fill level and 60 % fill level.
Tank that has a 60 % fill level has a bit steady pressure graph
with time, however the variation in pressure forces for 40%
fill level is so large as it can be seen from the graph. Reason
behind this is that we know that sloshing is characterized by
observing the variation in the pressure forces or from the
amplitudes of the sloshing waves. In our case, for 40 % fill
level, the available space for sloshing is 60 % and for 60 %
fill level the available space for sloshing is 40 %. More the
amount of available space, more would be the extent of
sloshing. Hence it can be established that the sloshing is a
function of fluid fill level.
Total force
182 (kN)
Fig. 23. Pressure forces at different excitation forces
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 2021 International Conference on Applied and Engineering Mathematics (ICAEM)
The graph in fig 23 is made for two different cases of
excitation forces, i.e., 2.5 g and 4g. The peak pressure value
for a greater excitation force is achieved first as compared
to the lesser one. Also, there is more variation in forces for
a greater excitation force or in other words the extent of
sloshing is there for a higher excitation force.
Fig. 24. Pressure forces on walls for a baffled and unbaffled tank.
Baffles reduce this sloshing impact by absorbing the kinetic
energy of the fluid inside the tank and consequently, the
velocity of fluid gets lowered. Hence, sloshing becomes less
violent as it is the function of velocity and time in addition
to other factors as well.
Settling time is very important for the high-speed vehicles
since the waves need to be damped quickly as they cause
vibrations and can be a cause of crack generation as well.
Table 2: Settling time for various fill levels and excitation forces
40% fill level 50 % fill 60 % fill
(sec) level(sec) level (sec)
2.5g 34 29.5 21
4g 26 22 15
5.5g 19 16 11
Baffles reduce the settling time. In the case of simple tank,
at t = 5 seconds, a violent turbulent movement of fluid can
be seen. Whereas in the tank with baffles, fluid has reached
its steady state. It can be stated that the use of baffles reduces
the sloshing phenomenon to a greater extent.
XIII. CONCLUSIONS
Liquid slosh is a very significant phenomenon for aircraft as
the fuel is distributed over the whole body of the aircraft.
The consumption of the fuel leaves lesser fuel that creates
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even more violent sloshing waves that are a major
flammability, stability, and structural concern for the
airframe integrity. This work covers a detailed analysis on
dependence of slosh magnitude on various factors such as
fill levels, acceleration, baffles, and geometry of fuel tank.
Importance of reduction in sloshing especially through the
use of baffles and superior design is highly emphasized. In
the present case, baffles reduced the pressure forces to
almost one tenth. The work has been validated both
analytically and experimentally.
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