A blind comparative study on isothermal sloshing in a circular tank (CCP-WSI Blind Test Series 5)

Authors

• S. A. Brown, School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics
• S. W. Colville, School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics
• V. Francis, University of Plymouth
• T. Zhao, University of Plymouth
• Y. C. Lee, School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics
• D. Cao, Tongji University
• H. Chen, Newcastle University
• J. Chen, School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics
• S. Chen, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology
• J. Davidson, Basque Center for Applied Mathematics
• J. Gong, Shanghai Maritime University
• H. Gu, Ningbo University
• A. Khayyer, Kyoto University
• D. H. Kim, Chungnam National University
• W. Liu, Daresbury Laboratory
• M. Luo, Zhejiang University
• R. Lyu, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology
• Q. Ma, City, University of London
• H. Ma, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology
• O. Mahfoze, Daresbury Laboratory
• I. Pregnan Johannesen, University of Plymouth
• Y. Qin, Shanghai Maritime University
• S. Shrestha, University of Queensland
• G. Tabor, University of Exeter
• R. Tan, Daresbury Laboratory
• E. Wahbah Makhoul, University of Exeter
• D. Wang, Ningbo University
• Y. Wang, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology
• H. Wei, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology
• S. Yan, City, University of London

ORCID

• S. A. Brown: 0000-0002-6858-3316
• Y. C. Lee: 0000-0002-0463-5586
• J. Chen: 0000-0002-0761-4756

Abstract

Numerical modelling is important in many fluid dynamics applications, yet robust benchmarking is required to quantify uncertainty. This study presents results from a blind comparative benchmark of isothermal sloshing in a circular tank. Sloshing is relevant to many engineering applications, including offshore shipping, where vessel motions can excite internal fluid motion, generating impact loads and affecting stability. A series of horizontal and vertical excitation cases of increasing complexity are considered. Participant solutions for free surface displacements are compared against physical model data that was withheld until after submission. Across all cases, the numerical models generally capture the dominant frequency. Typical errors are 10–15%, with some participants achieving 2%. For vertical excitation, larger discrepancies occur at the sidewalls, attributed to over-predicted run-up and difficulties in modelling breaking processes. Most submissions employ high-fidelity approaches with moderate spread in the results. In addition, an AI–accelerated approach was submitted, showing promising performance for less severe cases but requiring further development for extreme conditions. The results highlight that current numerical models capture the primary sloshing dynamics, but accurate representation of damping remains a challenge. These test cases provide a long-term benchmark for assessing numerical sloshing models, and are freely available through the CCP-WSI catalogue.

DOI Link

10.1016/j.oceaneng.2026.126290

Publication Date

2026-06-07

Publication Title

Ocean Engineering

Volume

362

Issue

P2

ISSN

0029-8018

Acceptance Date

2026-05-27

Deposit Date

2026-06-30

Funding

This work is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through projects CCP-WSI＋ (EP/T026782/1), HEC-WSI (EP/X035751/1) with additional support from The Computational Science Centre for Research Communities (CoSeC). W. Liu and O. Mahfoze were partially funded by the HASTA project (Grant No. 101138003) as part of the European Union Horizon research program.

Additional Links

https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105041065148

Keywords

Comparative study, Computational fluid dynamics, Faraday waves, Graph neural network, Sloshing, Smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Brown, S., Colville, S., Francis, V., Zhao, T., Lee, Y., Cao, D., Chen, H., Chen, J., Chen, S., Davidson, J., Gong, J., Gu, H., Khayyer, A., Kim, D., Liu, W., Luo, M., Lyu, R., Ma, Q., Ma, H., Mahfoze, O., Pregnan Johannesen, I., Qin, Y., Shrestha, S., Tabor, G., Tan, R., Wahbah Makhoul, E., Wang, D., Wang, Y., Wei, H., & Yan, S. (2026) 'A blind comparative study on isothermal sloshing in a circular tank (CCP-WSI Blind Test Series 5)', Ocean Engineering, 362(P2). Available at: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2026.126290