Study of Self-Induced Sloshing in Model Test of a Water Retaining Weir

Abstract

This paper presents for the first time observations of a self-induced sloshing phenomenon in the water-retaining weir model. Fast Fourier Transform method is used to detect the dominant frequency for the sloshing water. The characteristics of the sloshing water in terms of sloshing strength and frequency are experimentally studied for six different cases. Results show that both sloshing regions and sloshing strength depends on not only the water levels but also the inlet velocities, and the relationship between them is displayed in this paper. Different prediction models for sloshing frequencies are built and compared with the experimental results, with discussions of the differences between them. For higher water level sloshing region, a new factor is introduced to the Faltinsen’s prediction formula, leading to a better agreement between prediction and experimental results. The mechanism of the self-induced sloshing is also discussed in this paper.