EFFECT OF BAFFLES ON SLOSHING MODULATED FORCES AND TORQUES DISTURBANCES REACTED TO GRAVITY GRADIENT DOMINATED ACCELERATIONS

Abstract

The behavior of sloshing dynamics modulated fluid systems driven by the orbital accelerations including gravity gradient and jitter accelerations have been studied. Partially liquid-filled rotating dewar applicable to a full-scale Gravity Probe-B Spacecraft container with and without baffle are considered. Results show that slosh waves excited along the liquid-vapor interface induced by gravity gradient dominated orbital accelerations provide torsional moment with tidal motion of bubble oscillations in the rotating dewar. Fluctuations of slosh reaction forces and torques exerted on the dewar wall driven by the orbital accelerations are also investigated. Since the viscous force between a liquid-solid interface, and the surface tension force between a liquid-vapor-solid interface can greatly contribute to the damping effect of slosh wave excitation, a rotating dewar with baffle provides more areas of liquid-solid and liquid-vapor-solid interfaces than that of rotating Dewar without the baffle. Results show that the damping effect provided by baffle reduces the amplitudes of slosh reactions forces and torques feedback from the fluids to the container, in particular, the components of fluctuations transverse to the direction of baffle.