Equivalent mechanical model of large-amplitude liquid sloshing under time-dependent lateral excitations in low-gravity conditions

Abstract Subjected to external lateral excitations, large-amplitude sloshing may take place in propellant tanks, especially for spacecraft in low-gravity conditions, such as landers in the process of hover and obstacle avoidance during lunar soft landing. Due to lateral force of the order of gravity in magnitude, the amplitude of liquid sloshing becomes too big for the traditional equivalent model to be accurate. Therefore, a new equivalent mechanical model, denominated the “composite model”, that can address large-amplitude lateral sloshing in partially filled spherical tanks is established in this paper, with both translational and rotational excitations considered. The hypothesis of liquid equilibrium position following equivalent gravity is first proposed. By decomposing the large-amplitude motion of a liquid into bulk motion following the equivalent gravity and additional small-amplitude sloshing, a better simulation of large-amplitude liquid sloshing is presented. The effectiveness and accuracy of the model are verified by comparing the slosh forces and moments to results of the traditional model and CFD software.

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