INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL METHODS IN ENGINEERING, VOL.

15, 1207-1 220 (1980)

NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF LIQUID MOTION IN A

CONTAINER SUBJECTED TO FORCED PITCHING
OSCILLATION
TSUKASA N A K A Y A M A ~AND KYUICHIROWASHIZUS
Department of Aeronautics, University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1,Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

SUMMARY
A nonlinear analysisis carried out for the motion of the inviscid, incompressiblefluid in a two-dimensional,
rigid, open container which is subjected to forced sinusoidal pitching oscillation. Firstly, the problem is
defined as a nonlinear initial-boundary value problem by the use of a governing differential equation and
boundary conditions. Next, the problem is formulated in the form of a pseudo-variationalprinciple, which
provides a basis for our discretization. The finite element method and finite difference method are used
spacewise and timewise, respectively. Due to the strong nonlinearity of the problem, an incremental
method is used for the numerical analysis. Numericalresults obtained by the present method are compared
with solutions of the linear theory and experimental data. The difference between linear and nonlinear
analysis has been clearly indicated.

INTRODUCTION
A liquid motion in a container which is subjected to forced oscillation, i.e. ‘sloshing’, is a
phenomenon of great engineering importance, as exemplified by fuel sloshing of a liquid
propellant rocket, oil oscillation in a large storage tank and water oscillation in a reservoir due to
earthquake, and so forth. As is well known, this is a difficult mathematical problem to be solved
numerically as well as analytically, because the dynamic boundary condition (Bernoulli’s
equation) at the free surface is nonlinear and the position of the free surface varies with time in a
manner not known a priori. Therefore, most of studies which have been conducted so far were
based on the linear theory where the motions of the liquid as well as the container are assumed to
be small. Although the linear theory has been used widely as a practical technique, a number of
nonlinear characters of liquid sloshing have been long noted in the case of the large amplitude
response of the free surface. Hence, in recent development, attention has been concentrated on
the investigation of the liquid motion in finite amplitude.
However, only a few theoretical studies of the finite amplitude liquid motion have been made.
In 1958, Moiseev’ investigated the nonlinear sloshing in a container of arbitrary shape
employing a perturbation method and characteristic functions. But he only described theoretical
development in his paper, and it is difficult to use his theory for practical purposes. In 1963,
Hutton*developed a theory for the investigation of resonant, nonlinear, non-planar free surface
oscillation of a fluid in a cylindrical container subjected to horizontal excitation. In 1974,
Faltinsen’ applied the ideas suggested by Moiseev to the sloshing in rectangular tanks subjected
to horizontal or pitching excitation. He formulated the problem as a nonlinear, initial-boundary
t Graduate student.
$ Professor.

0029-5981/80/0815-1207$01.00 Received 24 July 1979

@ 1980 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Revised 31 October 1979
1207
1208 T. NAKAYAMA A N D K. WASHIZU

value problem with reference to the inertial co-ordinate system, and solved the problem by the
use of the perturbation method, assuming the excitation amplitude to be small. He compared the
steady-state solution with the experimental data in the case of the pitching excitation. In 1974,
employing the finite element method, I k e g a ~ aanalysed
~’~ the nonlinear sloshing of liquid in a
two-dimensional rectangular container subjected to horizontal excitation and obtained some
nonlinear characteristics of the fluid motion. In 1978, extending Ikegawa’s method above
mentioned, Washizu, Nakayama and Ikegawa’ analysed the nonlinear sloshing of liquid in a
two-dimensional container subjected to forced vertical oscillation and obtained some nonlinear
characteristics of the fluid motion.
In this paper we deal with the nonlinear oscillation of an inviscid, incompressible fluid in a
two-dimensional, rigid, open container which is subjected to forced pitching oscillation. Firstly,
governing equations for the liquid motion are formulated as a nonlinear initial-boundary value
problem with reference to the co-ordinate system fixed to the container, assuming the liquid
motion to be irrotational. Then, a pseudo-variational principle is introduced for the problem
and is discretized by the finite element technique. Due to the nonlinearity of the problem,
incremental method is employed for numerical analysis. The numerical results obtained by the
present method are compared with the solutions based on the linear theory and also with
experimental data.

GOVERNING EQUATIONS
The problem under consideration is the motion of a liquid in a two-dimensional rectangular
container shown in Figure 1.The container has a width 26 and is filled with the liquid to a height
h. A rectangular Cartesian co-ordinate system, o - x y , is fixed to the container in such a manner

t - - - b A b J
Figure 1. A two-dimensional rectangular container

that the x-axis is parallel to the undisturbed free surface and the y-axis is in coincidence with the
centre line of the container and directed upward, namely, in the opposite direction to the gravity.
The distance between the undisturbed free surface and the x-axis is denoted by e, which is taken
positive when the free surface is above the x-axis. The origin o is taken as the centre of rotation
in a subsequent forced pitching oscillation.
Figure 2 shows the container in motion. A rectangular Cartesian co-ordinate system, 0 -XY,
is an inertial system, and the container is in a forced pitching motion about the origin o with an
 NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF LIQUID MOTION 1209

0i
, Figure 2. A container in motion

angular velocity n(r)which is related to O ( t ) by

where d ( t ) is the angle of inclination of the container at time t. Assuming that the fluid is inviscid
and incompressible, and that the flow is irrotational, the governing equation is given by

where V is the fluid region, and # ( x , y, t ) is the velocity potential defined by the use of the
relative velocity (u, v ) of the fluid to the co-ordinate system o -xy as follows:

u=--ny,
a4 a4
u=-+nx (3)
ax aY
The boundary conditions on the free surfaceboundary S1are obtained from the following two
considerations:6 (i) the pressure at the free surface must be equal to the atmospheric pressure,
and (ii) once the fluid particles are on the free surface they remain on it during the subsequent
motion. Assuming the atmospheric pressure to be zero, and from the first consideration, we
obtain the dynamic boundary condition on SIas

where ~ ( xt), is the displacement of the free surface from the undisturbed free surface (see
Figure 2), and g is the acceleration of gravity. From the second consideration, we have
37) a4
n,-=-++{xn,-(q+e)n,}; onS1
at an
where n, and n,. are the direction cosines of the normal drawn outwardly on the boundary, and
a/an denotes differentiation in the direction of the normal. Equation ( 5 ) is called the kinematic
condition. The remaining boundary condition is that at the wetted surface Szof the container.
1210 T. NAKAYAMA AND K. WASHIZU

The normal component of the velocity of the fluid relative to the co-ordinate system must
vanish. This condition is written as

Thus, the problem is reduced to the nonlinear initial-boundary value problem expressed by
equations (2), (4), ( 5 ) and (6).

PSEUDO-VARIATIONAL PRINCIPLE
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem by the finite element method, we introduce the
pseudo-variational principle as follows. When attention is paid to a certain time instant t, the
governing equations (2), (4), (5) and (6) are given as stationary conditions of a pseudo-
variational functional xp, defined by
X P = XI +a x 2 (7)
where

+Is2 (xn, - ynXMd s (8b)

In equation (8a), V ( q )means that the liquid region is dependent on 7. In the functional xP,the
independent functions subjected to variation are 4 and q with no subsidiary conditions. It
should be noted that in equation (8a) and (8b), the terms a4/ar and aq/af, as well as the
underlined terms, are treated as constants not subjected to variation when the first variation is
taken.

FINITE ELEMENT FORMULATION

For our finite element formulation, the fluid region is divided into a large number of triangular
elements as shown in Figure 3. For an arbitrary triangular element such as shown in Figure 4, we
assume 4 to be a linear function of x and y, namely
4 = a + bx + cy (9)
where a, b and c are time-dependent constants, values of which are determined in terms of
values of 4 at the three vertices, and we obtain
 NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF LIQUID MOTION 121 1

Figure 3. Mesh pattern

where

and where A is the area of the triangular element given by

The profile of the free surface ~ ( xI ,) between two neighbouring nodal points on S, is also
approximated by a straight segment as shown in Figure 5. Substituting the relations obtained

x-0
Figure 4. A triangular element
1212 T. NAKAYAMA AND K. WASHIZU

Pj

Pi

Q ...... line element A

@ ...... line element B

Figure 5 . Subdivision of the boundary S1 and S2

above into equation (71,we obtain the functional in matrix form as follows:
XP = XI + ax2
1 g cos e
x1= x
c
@ T ( ~ ~B +
TB ~ ) @ A +- 2
CqTFq-gsin8xqTE
SI
S I

where, on referring to Figure 5 ,

zT = [qi+ e, q k + el

cT=:[(xi -xj)(xj + 2 x i ) + ( y i - y j ) ( y j +2 (xi - x j ) ( x i

~ i ) 9 + 2 x j ) + ( ~ -i y j ) ( y i + 2 y j ) l
(19)
The symbols C, and CS,denote summation with respect to all the elements and with respect to all
the elements which have nodal points on S1, respectively, and Is, and Es2 denote summation
with respect to the line elements on SIand on S2, respectively.

INCREMENTAL PROCEDURE
Since some variables and matrices in the functional xp,such as the area of an element A, vectors
A and B, are related to the unknown quantity q,it is obvious that the stationary conditions of the
 NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF LIQUID MOTION 1213

functional ,yp are found nonlinear with respect to the unknown quantities. Consequently, it is
considered better to employ an incremental method for the present formulation as follows:
denoting values of 4 and q at two successive time instants at to and to + At by 40,q o and 4, q,
respectively, where A t is the time increment, we define increments d d and d q as follows:
4=4o+d4, q=qo+dq (20)
We assume throughout following formulations that
lddI<<14019 Idtll<<Ivol (21)
and that higher order terms of dcp and d q can be neglected to obtain linearized equations with
respect to d d and dq. By using equations (20), all variables at the time of to + A? can be expressed
in terms of increments d4, dq and variables at the time of to. Suppose that a triangular element
PpPjP: which has two nodal points on S1changes its shape into a triangular element PiPfk in the
interval from t = to to t = to + At, as shown in Figure 6, we have for the area of an element at the
time of to + At
A = & + PTdq (22)

Figure 6. Deformation of a triangular element PpP,Pi to Pip,&

where

1 xi Yi 1 xi YP
A=- 1 yj A -- 1 xj yj (23~)
2 O-2
1 xk Yk 1 Xk yi
1214 T. NAKAYAMA AND K. WASHIZU

where

and

For a triangular element which has only a nodal point on S1, similar geometrical relations are
derived by putting dqk equal to zero in equations (22), (24a) and (24b). Needless to say, dqi and
d q k are equal to zero for a triangular element which has no nodal points on S1.
A mention should be made with respect to the term xsl
a T C in equation (14b), because the
line elements A and B on Sz, which have one each of their nodal points on S1, as shown in Figure
5 , are subjected to deformation during the time increment Ar. We have

and find that for the line element A,

and for the line element B,

dqT= [ O , dqjI

The time-stepping technique employed in the present formulation is the finite difference
scheme called the trapezoidal rule. Assuming that the values of aq5/at and a q / & change as linear
functions with respect to time during the time increment At, the following relations are obtained:
84 = -
-
at
2
d4-
At
a4 (z) 0
 NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF LIQUID MOTION 1215

Substitution of all variables at the time of fo + A t expressed in terms of d4, dq and variables at
the time of to into the functional (3)yields the following functional xpin matrix form:
XP = xl+ RX2 (30)
1
xi =sI(@o+d*)T{(Ao+Ai dq)(A;f+dqTAT)+(Bo+Bidq)(B:+dq T T
Bi))

X (@o + d@)(Ao+ PTdq)

8
+-gcos
2 SI
1 (qo+ddTF(q0+ dq) - g sin 8 I ( q o + W T E
SI

where
1
uT=-[-l,
1 13 (32)

By taking a restricted variation of equation (30) with respect to d 4 and dq, we obtain the
following simultaneous linear equations:

where

--
L
At s,
2 F-R c F(Z~II*+Z;~UI)
SI
+nc c1
s2

R~= - 1 ( A ~ A EB+ ~ B ; ) ~-~ F(

e SI
2)
0

-R c (E -
SI
-~R)
FZ~U~Z c co
S1
1216 T. NAKAYAMA AND K. WASHIZU

-g cos B C F q o + g sin B C E -R (EB;ao

s1 s1 s.
and where I denotes a unit matrix. It should be mentioned repeatedly that in taking variation of
the functional (30), increments dq5 and d v contained in underlined parts must be treated as
constants not subjected to the variation.
For the start of the above procedure, initial values of q5, 7 , d + / a t and d q / a t should be given.
For this purpose, we assume that the liquid is entirely at rest and the container is inclined at the
angle of 0 at t = 0. From these assumptions we have
+(x, y9 0) = 0 I
I
, = x tan
~ ( x0) 0+ e
I (35)

which are used as initial conditions. From above initial conditions, the container is assumed to be
subjected to the following forced sinusoidal pitching oscillation:
e(r)=Ocoswr for t2O (36)
It is noted that the mesh division is made at every time step: when the profile of the free
surface is obtained at t = to + At, the flow region is divided into a new mesh pattern and the values
of q5 at newly defined nodal points are obtained by interpolation.

NUMERICAL EXAMPLES
We take two kinds of two-dimensional rectangular containers for numerical examples. The
dimensions of these containers are as follows:
container A; 2 b = 0.9 m, h = 0.6 m, e =0
container B; 26 = 1.0 m, h = 0.35 m, e = 0.1 m

The flow region is divided into a number of triangular elements as shown in Figure 3. Some of the
computed results are shown in the following.
Firstly, free oscillation with small amplitude of the liquid in container A is computed in order
to confirm the present formulation and the computer program. The computed result is shown in
Figure 7, in which q ( f b , t ) is plotted against the time. As the initial profile of the free surface,
first antisymmetric natural mode with the amplitude of 1 - 0cm is assumed. The computed first
natural frequency of the liquid is 5.82 rad/sec, while the solution of the linear theory is
5.76 rad/sec.
Figure 8 shows the time histories of ~ ( + bt ), of the liquid in container A which is forced to
pitch about the origin o as given by equation (36). The parameters 0 and w are assumed so that
0 = 0-8deg and w = 5 . 5 rad/sec, respectively. The numerical result shown by the solid line is
compared with the exact solution of the linear theory, which is shown by the broken line in
Figure 8, where the well-known nonlinear characteristic of the fluid is observed: the upward
 NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF LIQUID MOTION 1217

Figure 7. Free oscillation

wave amplitude becomes greater than the downward one as the wave amplitude becomes
larger.'
Figure 9 shows the time histories of ~ ( f b t, ) of the liquid in container A with the parameters,
0 = 0 - 2 deg and w = 5.8 rad/sec. The state close to the resonance is obtained because the forced
frequency w is close to the first natural frequency of the antisymmetric mode, 5.76 rad/sec, of
the liquid in container A. The time increment A t was taken to be 0.03 sec in the computations
for Figures 7, 8 and 9.
Figure 10shows the time histories of the total pressure acting at the point P on the right wall of
container B which is forced to pitch about the origin o with 0 = 5 deg and o = 4.19 rad/sec. The
numerical result shown by the solid line is compared with the exact solution of the linear theory
shown by the broken line. Further, Figure 11 shows the distribution of the total pressure acting
on the right wall at t = 4 - 5 2sec, where the computed values of the total pressure are compared
with the experimental data obtained by Higuchi et al.' The close agreement between computed
and experimental values are obtained, although the experiment was made by the use of the
closed tank drawn with the broken line in Figure 11.
Figure 12 shows the relation between the maximum total pressure acting at the point P and the
forced pitching angle 0,in the case of w = 4.19 rad/sec by using container B. As the value of the

- present FEM
_____ linear theory

Figure 8. Time histories of q(+b, 1 )

8 = 0-8 deg, w = 5.5 rad/sec
1218 T. NAKAYAMA AND K. WASHIZU

Figure 9. Time histories of q ( i b , I )

€4 = 0-2deg. w = 5-8 rad/sec

forced pitching angle increases, the difference between the computed value by the present
nonlinear analysis and the exact solution of the linear theory increases. This result indicates that
the squared term of the velocities contained in the dynamic boundary condition, equation (4),
should not be neglected in the case of the large forced pitching angle. The time increment At was
taken to be 0.01 sec in the computations for Figures 1 0 , l l and 12.
It is noted that our computing time was about 150sec per 200 time steps by HITAC
8800/8700 of the computer centre of the University of Tokyo.

- present FEM
--___-linear theory
7.5 cm - .. - hydrostatic pressure
- 407 I

O ! I r I I I 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Time (sec)
Figure 10. Time histories of total pressure acting on P
0 = 5 deg. w = 4.19 rad1se.c
 NONLINEAR ANALYSIS OF LIQUID MOTION 1219

0.6 - _--_-linear theory

0 experiment ( r e f . 8 1
- - - - - __ -.. - hydrostatic

-a
c
c
0

I
5
z
.-
-0-

----
present F E M

linear theory

--- hydrostatic pressure

in the case of inclining

0 I
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Forced pitching angle ( deg 1
Figure 12. Forced pitching angle vs. maximum total pressure
o =4.19 rad/sec
1220 T. NAKAYAMA AND K. WASHIZU

CONCLUDING REMARKS
It has been shown that the problem of analysing the unsteady motion of a fluid with the free
surface at a large amplitude is solvable numerically by the use of the pseudo-variational
principle and the finite element method. According to the present method, the nonlinearity of
the dynamic boundary condition on the free surface can be taken into account without much
difficulty. The nonlinear characteristics of the fluid motion which have been observed in
previous experiments have been confirmed by the present method.
It is added that the present formulation and solution procedure are applicable to the analysis
of the travelling wave in shallow water.
In this paper the fluid was assumed to be inviscid and the flow to be irrotational. The analysis
of the sloshing of a viscous fluid in a three-dimensional container will be a challenging problem
of the future.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors would like to express their appreciation to Dr. M. Ikegawa, Mechanical Engineer-
ing Research Laboratory, Hatachi Co. Ltd, for valuable discussions. They also wish to express
their gratitude to Dr. N. Yoshimura, Tsu Research Laboratory, Nippon Kokan Co. Ltd, for
permitting them to quote the experimental data.

REFERENCES
1. N. N. Moiseev, ‘Onthe theory of nonlinear vibrations of a liquid of finite volume’, Appl. Maths and Mechs (PMM),
22,860-872 (1958).
-
2. R. E. Hutton, ‘An investigation of resonant, nonlinear, nonplanar free surface oscillations of a fluid’, NASA TN
0-1870 (1963).
3. M.Ikeeawa. ‘Finite element analvsis of fluid motion in acontainer’. in Finite Element Merhods in Flow Problems (Eds.
J. T. 6den,’O. C. Zienkiewia, R. H. Gallagher and C. Taylor), UAH Press, Huntsville, 1974, pp. 737-738. ”

4. K. Washizu and M. Ikegawa, ‘Some applications of the finite-element method to fluid mechanics’, in Theoretical and
Applied Mechanics (Proc. 22nd Japan National Congr. for Applied Mechanics), University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo,
1974, pp. 143-154.
5. K. Washizu, T. Nakayama and M. Ikegawa, ‘Application of the finite element method to some free surface fluid
problems’, in Finite Elements in WaferResources (Eds. W .G. Gray, G. F. Pinder and C. A. Brebbia), Pentech Press,
London, 1978, pp. 4.247-4.266.
6. L. L. Fontenot, ‘The dynamics of liquids in fixed and moving containers’, NASA CR-941 (1968).
7. H. N. Abramson, ‘The dynamic behavior of liquids in moving containers’, NASA SP-106 (1966).
8. M. Higuchi, T. Tanaka and S. Endo, ‘Study on hull vibration-induced tank liquid sloshing in LPG tankers’ (in
Japanese), Nippon Kokan Tech. Rep., 72, 111-122 (1976).
9. 0. M. Faltinsen, ‘A nonlinear theory of sloshing in rectangular tanks’, J. Ship Res. 18. 224-241 (1974).