Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Liquid Slosh Behavior Using Ground-Based Platforms

摘要

Liquid-propellant slosh events occurring during orbital maneuvers of a rocket's upper stage may adversely affect vehicle performance. Mission planners require accurate and validated simulation tools to understand and predict the effects of slosh on the intended trajectory of the vehicle, as well as for propellant and tank thermal management. A coupled rigid-body and fluid-dynamics numerical tool is presented which can be used to predict the effect of internal fluid slosh on a tank's trajectory. To benchmark the numerical tool, a novel experimental framework is presented which examines the influence of liquid slosh on the trajectory of moving tanks with multiple degrees of freedom. The motion history of the tank is measured along with synchronized camera images of the liquid distribution within the tank. The acquired experimental data are used to assess the accuracy of the numerical tool. The predictions from the numerical tool are in excellent agreement with the experimentally measured data over a wide range of tank motion profiles.