On the Efficacy of Turbulence Modelling for Sloshing
, Wendi Liu 1, Stephen M. Longshaw 1, Alex Skillen 2 and David R. Emerson 1Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This article discusses the degree of influence of turbulence on the fluid flow characteristics in a closed tank in the form of a parallelepiped under periodic external impact.
The study was carried out using numerical simulation based on the Navier-Stokes equations and various turbulence models. The simulation results are compared with experimental data, which are considered as a kind of test for the mathematical models.
It has been shown that the simulation in the two-dimensional case adequately describes the behaviour of the fluid only in a very narrow range of the Froude number. The satisfactory agreement between the calculated and experimental data is possible only in the three-dimensional case.
It has been established that both the Navier-Stokes model and other turbulence models considered in the article are not universal for use in a wide range of Froude numbers. In general, the RNG-k-e model showed a satisfactory result.
The results presented in the paper have both theoretical and practical significance. The research design and the presentation of the results are clear and understandable.
There are some small remarks to the article related to the description of the mathematical model and the results:
1) The fluid density in formulas (1) and (2) is the same but is denoted by different letters (ρ_f and ρ).
2) The source term S_ϕ in equations (1) is not specified.
3) Point 3 is more appropriate to name “Mathematical formulation of the problem” than “Numerical setup”. Maybe it should be divided into two parts.
4) In point 3, it is necessary to indicate that the tank is closed on all sides. The fact that it is closed becomes clear from the context only in point 4.
5) It is necessary to provide some information about the influence of the number of nodes of the computational grid on the results.
In my opinion, the article can be published in the journal after a slight revision in accordance with the above remarks.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper conducted simulations of partially filled tanks subjected to harmonically oscillating and vertical motion. Accuracy of the RANS-based modelling is assessed. However, the RANS models have been widely investigated in previous work, even much more accurate simulation methods have been conducted. In this case, the novelty and the significance of this work are not that obvious. The following issues are also needed to be considered:
1) How about the mesh independence? For the turbulence models adopted in this paper, they have different requirements to the mesh distribution, such as the y+, does the mesh used in this paper fit for them?
2) In fig.2, 2D simulation results better agree with the experimental results, what's the reason for that?
3) When compare the results with different turbulence model, what's the further mechanism for the difference? This is more important to the differences between the lines.
4) What's the highlight of this work? What's the key point of the modelling for sloshing? This paper is more like a preliminary work, instead of a systematic research work which can be published.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
The authors have conducted much effort to improve the manuscript.
