A Mechanical Model for Low-Gravity Sloshing in an Axisymmetric Tank

Abstract

A mechanical model for low-gravity sloshing in an axisymmetric tank is developed using a newly developed slosh analysis method. In this method, spherical coordinates, whose origin is at the top of the cone that is tangent to the tank at the contact line of the meniscus with the tank wall, are used to analytically determine the characteristic functions for an arbitrary axisymmetric tank for which it is customary to resort to numerical methods. By this means, fast and cost-efficient computation can be conducted. Parameters of the mechanical model are determined such that the frequency responses of the resultant force and moment to lateral excitation coincide with those of the actual sloshing system. Influences of the Bond number and the liquid-filling level on the parameters of the mechanical model are examined.