Dynamic characteristics of spacecraft sloshing under gravity-spinning environment

In this paper the dynamic characteristics of a spinning spacecraft partially filled with liquid are investigated under gravity environment. The governing equations include centrifugal inertial force, Coriolis force and spatially homogeneous vorticity. Suppose that the liquid in a rigid tank is ideal and incompressible. Viscous dissipation is related by the boundary layer theory. The boundary value problems of liquid sloshing and the differential equations of the fluid-rigid coupled system are derived and solved by using three dimensional boundary element method. Using the energy sink theory, the nutation time constant of the spinning spacecraft is predicted numerically. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.