Modeling of Automotive Fuel Tanks Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

A finite element model utilizing the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) algorithm in LS-DYNA is developed to simulate the behavior of automotive fuel tanks in drop tests. Limited physical tests described in the open literature have demonstrated failures in certain reconditioned fuel tanks, but the tests were inconclusive. The modeling effort described in this paper is aimed at providing insight into the complex loading on the tanks resulting from the fluid-structure interaction.

Application of the SPH algorithm to model a variety of fuel tanks as well as laboratory test specimens shows distinct correlations between tank geometry design and its propensity for failure, as well as differences in loading resulting from substitution of water for gasoline.