Vibration of a liquid with a free surface in a spinning spherical tank

The problem of forced fluid vibrations in a partially filled spinning spherical tank is solved numerically by using the finite element method. The governing equations include Coriolis acceleration and spatially homogeneous vorticity. An exponential instability is detected in the present simulation for fill ratios below 0·5 and centrifugal acceleration to thrust ratios less than 1·7. This fictitious instability appears in the model as a result of the homogeneous vortex assumption since the free slosh equations are neutrally stable in the Liapunov sense.