The numerical simulation of liquid sloshing on board spacecraft

  • Authors:

  • A. E. P. Veldman;J. Gerrits;R. Luppes;J. A. Helder;J. P. B. Vreeburg

  • Affiliations:

  • Institute of Mathematics and Computing Science, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands;Institute of Mathematics and Computing Science, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands;Institute of Mathematics and Computing Science, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands;Institute of Mathematics and Computing Science, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands;National Aerospace Laboratory NLR, P.O. Box 90502, 1006 BM Amsterdam, The Netherlands

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computational Physics
  • Year:
  • 2007

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Abstract

The subject of study is the influence of sloshing liquid on the dynamics of spacecraft. A combined theoretical and experimental approach has been followed. On the one hand, CFD simulations have been carried out to predict the combined liquid/solid body motion. Basically a volume-of-fluid (VOF) approach is followed, however with improvements in the treatment of the free liquid surface: these cover the surface reconstruction and displacement and the calculation of surface tension effects by means of a local height function. Also attention has been paid to the stability of the numerical coupling between solid-body dynamics and liquid dynamics. On the other hand, in-orbit experiments have been carried out with the Sloshsat FLEVO satellite. The paper describes a first comparison between theoretical predictions and experimental findings.