
Characterization Of Cryogenic Sloshing Via Image Velocimetry, Free Surface Tracking And Data Assimilation
Pedro Afonso Marques, Alessia Simonini, Mathieu Delsipée, Miguel Alfonso Mendez
von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Sint-Genesius-Rode, Belgium
DOI:
Cryogenic fuels such as liquid hydrogen (LH_2 ) and liquified natural gas (LNG) are promising energy carriers for the future. Their thermal management is significantly challenged by the liquid sloshing induced by external acceleration because sloshing strongly impacts the evaporation rate and, thus, the reservoir’s pressure control. This work presents a unique experimental characterization of liquid sloshing in cryogenic conditions combining interface tracking, image velocimetry and physics-constrained data assimilation. The experiments were conducted in a reduced-scale cryogenic tank partly filled with liquid nitrogen undergoing lateral harmonic sloshing. A combination of floating and neutrally buoyant seeding particles was used to simultaneously carry out interface tracking using a moving-window Radon transform and image velocimetry using Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV). The data assimilation was carried out using constrained radial basis function (RBF) regression, imposing kinematic boundary conditions at the walls and interface. The assimilation allows for unprecedented super-resolution of the velocity field.
