Fluid damping in rectangular tank fitted with various internal objects – An experimental investigation

Abstract

The potential of internal objects in changing the dynamic system characteristics of mobile liquid carrying rectangular containers is experimentally investigated in the present study. This study involves identification of system characteristics such as natural frequency and damping. Three different configurations of centrally installed internal objects; bottom-mounted vertical baffles, surface-piercing wall-mounted vertical baffles, and bottom-mounted submerged-blocks have been tried out as potential passive slosh damping devices. A series of painstaking experiments has been conducted in a rigid rectangular tank model on a shake table under lateral harmonic excitation. A frequency response of various internal object arrangements on free surface elevation has been studied. Having identified the system characteristics, the sloshing responses of liquid (water) to harmonic sinusoidal loading for different baffle configurations are investigated. The time variation of the free surface elevation to the baffle configuration and height have been highlighted. Sine sweep and Logarithmic decay method have been resorted to in the experimental discourse. The parametric study shows that the surface-piercing wall mounted baffles are the most effective one in slosh damping among the three configurations.