GPU simulation of sloshing in a vibrating water tank with smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method

Abstract

This work aims simulations of sway-sloshing motion in a partially filled rectangular water tank with a certain water depth and enforced vibration motion frequencies. The lateral motion frequency of the tank is chosen so as to coincide with the lowest theoretical natural frequency for the corresponding beam of the tank and initial depth of water reserve. A truly meshless method, Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is used to discretize and solve the governing equations. A quantitative comparison of a recent numerical treatment on GPUs (graphics processing units) which are applied on the solution of a violent free-surface flow problem. The performance and the scalability of the graphic cards will be evaluated. The algorithms demand extensive computational power for the simulations that require large number of particles. Thus, the parallelization of the solver is the key for to utilize the method on a crucial flow problem comes from the industry. For the sway-sloshing problem, the time histories of free surface elevations on the left side wall of the tank will be compared with experimental and numerical results available in the literature to show the accuracy of the method briefly. © 2019 IEEE.