Experimental investigation of random parametric liquid sloshing

The dynamic response of the liquid free surface in a circular cylindrical tank subjected to a random parametric excitation is investigated experimentally. Two main objectives are considered in this study. The first is to resolve a contradiction observed in the literature of various methods used to predict the mean square stability. The second is to verify the results predicted by the non—Gaussian closure scheme. Experimental measurements are processed to estimate the response statistical parameters. These include the mean, mean square, and probability density functions for the first anti—symmetric and first symmetric sloshing modes. The tests are repeated for various excitation spectral density levels. The results confirm the jump phenomenon for the first anti—symmetric sloshing mode as predicted by the non—Gaussian closure scheme. The measured statistical parameters show some deviations from the predicted results. This disagreement is mainly attributed to the fact that the excitation is represented by a physical white noise process in the analytical model while it is a band—limited random process in the actual experimental tests.