Dynamics of Liquid Sloshing in Upright and Inverted Bladdered Tanks

Abstract

The sloshing of liquids in tanks that use a flexible, inextensible bladder to contain the liquid is investigated experimentally and theoretically. The bladder affects both the configuration of the liquid in the tank and the sloshing frequencies and motion. The governing equations of liquid sloshing coupled to the structural dynamics of the bladder are formulated and examined to determine the interaction between the body forces of the liquid and the stiffness of the bladder and to show that the slosh dynamics can be represented by equivalent mechanical models. Tests are conducted to establish such mechanical models for normal and low-gravity conditions. For an inverted tank (liquid above the bladder), the sloshing is sufficiently different from conventional sloshing that the form of the equivalent mechanical model as well as the numerical values of the model parameters must be derived from the test results.