Experimental Study on Liquid Sloshing Characteristics in a Propellant Tank with Perforated Damping Structure on a Satellite

Abstract

Abstract The liquid in the satellite propellant tank is inevitably sloshing due to the vibration excitation of the rocket body. During the process of launch and satellite orbit change, the vibration excitation will be transmitted to the propellant tank. The resulting sloshing of liquid in the tank will generate additional sloshing force and moment applied on the satellite, which will have a serious impact on the satellite's attitude. In this paper, the sloshing performance of liquid in the large capacity propellant tank on the satellite is tested. The liquid sloshing tests were carried out on upper and lower tanks with a porous damping structure under different filling ratios, respectively. The mechanics data was collected by the sensor and analyzed using the classic pendulum model. Based on the test data and classic theory, the sloshing frequency, sloshing quality and sloshing damping parameters of upper and lower tanks were computed and compared. The results showed that the sloshing performance of the propellant tank was significantly affected by the internal damping structure. The research results of sloshing provide reference and support for the design and optimization of satellite attitude control.