Nonlinear Parametric Vibrations of an Elastic Structure with a Rectangular Liquid Tank

The nonlinear coupled vibrations of an elastic structure and liquidsloshing in a rectangular tank partially filled with liquid, are investigated.The structure on which the liquid tank is attached is vertically subjected to a sinusoidal excitation when the natural frequency of the structure is equal to twicethe natural frequency of one of the sloshing modes. In the theoretical analysis, the modal equations are derivedby taking nonlinear fluid force into account. Responses of the structure and the liquid surface are presented asresonance curves using the harmonic balance method. From this theoreticalanalysis the following predictions are obtained: (a) due to the nonlinearity of the fluid force, harmonic oscillations appear in the structure, while subharmonic oscillations occur on the liquid surface; (b) the shapes of the resonance curves markedly change depending on the liquid level; and (c) when the tuning condition is slightly deviated, amplitudemodulated motions and chaotic oscillations appear during a certain range of the excitation frequency. These were qualitatively in agreement with the experimental results.