Simulation of the sloshing behaviour of two-phase flows in cryogenic rocket upper stages

Abstract

The target of this study is the development of a two-phase flow methodology which enables the incompressible module of the TAU (THETA) code to simulate dynamics in two-phase flows with high density ratios. The volume-of-fluid (VOF) method is chosen as the basic structure which clearly identifies the interfacial region and cells where only one fluid is present. The reconstruction of the interface is solved analytically with the CICSAM method. Furthermore, the simulation of surface tension is taken into account through a continuous surface force method. The code is validated against commonly used test cases with exact solutions for interface advection and surface tension. Furthermore, sloshing test cases in two and three dimensions are presented to investigate the spatial and temporal errors. Finally, the influence of different baffle layouts on the propellant sloshing in the Ariane 5 ESC-A upper stage tanks is investigated.