Experimental Study on Liquid Sloshing Dynamics in a Sway Excited Rectangular Tank

Abstract

An experimental shake table program is performed to explore the hydrodynamic behavior of liquid sloshing phenomena in a partially filled rectangular tank of 1:43 scaled tank subjected to sway excitation. Three different aspect ratios (h<inf>s</inf>/l, liquid depth, h<inf>s</inf> to the length of the tank, l) of 0.163, 0.325 and 0.488 which corresponds to 25%, 50% and 75% fill depths are considered. Excitation parameters such as frequencies ranging from 0.45 to 3.2 Hz which encompasses up to fifth mode of sloshing frequency and amplitudes of 4 and 8 mm are considered. An experimental setup is designed and devised to measure the sloshing force by using ballast mass concept. The experimental parameters such as run-up of sloshing oscillation, sloshing force and spectral energy are discussed. Experimental results of sloshing oscillation are compared with the numerical works of Nasar et al. (J Nav Archit Mar Eng 9:43–65, 2012). The present study reveals that the effect of excitation on sloshing oscillation is more pronounced near first mode of resonance and insignificant at off-resonance conditions. The effect of excitation amplitude on the fill level is pronounced in the order of 50, 25 and 75% fill levels on sloshing oscillation, sloshing force and spectral energy. The sloshing force is found to be about 9.32, 26.03 and 26.43 N for the excitation parameters of forcing frequency (f) that equals to first mode sloshing frequency (f<inf>1</inf>) and amplitude of excitation A = 8 mm. The sloshing tank with 75% fill depth experiences more sloshing force on its containment than 25 and 50% fill depths. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.