Experimental and numerical investigation of 2D sloshing with slamming

Partially filled tanks can experience sloshing in several practical circumstances. This is a resonance phenomenon where the free-surface can highly deform. The liquid will move back and forth rising along the side walls, possibly impacting against the roof. Impact on a side tank wall may also occur,e. g. in shallow water conditions. Resulting slamming loads are of main concern. A synergic experimental-numerical investigation of the sloshing flows is currently performed. Here the main focus is on the occurrence of slamming events and on the prediction of the related loads. Numerically, our approach is based on the SPH method. This method is able to follow the whole flow evolution in the tank and handle the many relevant and complicated phenomena generally involved. Among those we can list: water run-up and run-down along the side walls, roof impacts, freesurface overturning and breaking onto the underlying water, air cushioning. Often these features characterize the flow for intermediate and shallow water depths which can establish in real tanks and are of interest in the present research activity.