Dynamic distribution of electrostatic charge and potential in oil tanks during filling process

To investigate the dynamic distribution of electrostatic charge and potential in oil tanks in the case of filling process, a novel calculation model is established. In the model, the oil tanks filling process is simulated by a gas-oil two-phase flow model. The electrostatic charge flowing into the tank is transported by diffusion, convection and dissipation. The distribution of electrostatic potential is obtained by solving Laplace's and Poisson's equations. The calculated surface potential, which changes with filling time, coincides with the experimental results well. The calculation results show that electrostatic charge isn't uniformly distributed in the tank, which is opposite to the assumption of uniform distribution in most researches. Surface potential reaches the maximum value at the filling fraction of 28%.