Examination of the dynamic behavior of fuel tanks for different excitation directions

摘要

Sloshing effects in a partially filled fuel tank have to be regarded for an accurate description of the dynamic behavior of a commercial vehicle, which undergoes complex three-dimensional excitations. For a modal description using linear potential flow theory, eigenfrequencies and eigenmodes as well as corresponding damping ratios have to be determined to predict the free-surface shape and occuring sloshing forces. Fuel tanks of commercial vehicles are typically designed with perforated plates as baffles. Therefore, a numerical procedure to calculate the eigenfrequencies and eigenmodes for tanks subdivided by baffles at different positions is presented and validated with experimental results. Furthermore, vertical excitation of the fuel tank, which is very pronounced in vehicles due to street roughness, results in parameter excited vibrations and related experimentally measured stability regions are given.