Sloshing in Suspended Containers

P. D. Weidman
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Cooker, (Wave Motion, 0, 1994) reported original work on the interactive dynamics between a fluid partially filling a single-compartment container suspended as a bifilar pendulum to determine the frequency of small amplitude motion of the system. Weidman (Bull. APS, 39, 1994) extended the results of Cooker to include multi-compartment rectangular containers, a cylindrical container, a 45 degree wedge container and a hyperbolid container. We present the theoretical results for some of these systems. Then fundamental mode frequency measurements will be presented for fluids partially filling single- and multiple-compartment rectangular containers and a cylindrical container. The results confirm the validity of the shallow-water approach over a range of fluid/container mass ratios M and pendulum lengths l varying from 0.5 m to 3.5 m.

Time permitting I will show preliminary measurements of surface tension driven self-organization of particles floating on the surface of water.