Enhanced sloshing control using novel shaped baffle

Liquid sloshing in partially filled tanks poses significant challenges in various engineering applications, including transportation, aerospace, and maritime industries. Traditional baffle designs, primarily oriented in either the vertical or horizontal direction, have shown limitations in suppressing sloshing efficiently. This study introduces a novel Tree-shaped baffle, designed to enhance energy dissipation and mitigate sloshing more effectively. This design integrates both vertical and horizontal elements to disrupt wave propagation and reduce dynamic pressure fluctuations on tank walls. Its performance is systematically compared to that of a Plus-shaped baffle to evaluate relative effectiveness under surge excitation. A numerical approach was employed to evaluate the performance of the proposed baffles. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were conducted in OpenFOAM using the volume-of-fluid method to accurately capture the free surface dynamics. Simulations were performed across three filling levels and two excitation frequencies corresponding to f_e/f₁ = 1 and 2. The results demonstrate that both baffle types effectively suppress free surface wave height and reduce dynamic wall forces, with the Tree baffle consistently outperforming the Plus baffle. The Tree baffle reduces maximum wall forces by 36.3% and wave heights by 28.1% at 50% filling at resonant condition. Detailed analyses of time histories, hydrodynamic pressure, force responses, and interface contours reveal that the Tree baffle's branched geometry disrupts wave motion more effectively, enhances energy dissipation, and reduces sloshing-induced loads. These findings highlight the potential of novel baffle designs for improving the stability and safety of fluid containment systems under dynamic loading.