Experimental characterisation of sloshing tank dissipative behaviour in vertical harmonic excitation

The effort to reduce costs and environmental impact of modern commercial aircraft requires an ever better understanding of aircraft physics, including the characterisation of the effective damping introduced on a structure by slosh dynamics. In this paper the experimental characterisation of vertical sloshing dissipative behaviour of a rectangular tank, representative of a scaled wing tank, is addressed. Specifically, a controlled electrodynamic shaker is employed to provide vertical displacement by means of sine-sweep excitation. High vertical acceleration makes the free surface unstable, triggering a nonlinear chaotic regime of the liquid stowed inside that experiences violent impacts with the surfaces of the tank. The obtained time histories of the measured accelerations and dynamic forces are shown to be directly related to the energy dissipated by the impacting fluid.