Experimental study on chaos of a liquid-filled tank under vertical excitation

Abstract

This paper is concerned with an experimental study on the chaos of a partially liquid-filled cylindrical tank under vertical excitation. The test cylinder made of polyester film was harmonically excited with constant displacement amplitude. It has been well known that the partially liquid-filled cylindrical tank under periodic vertical excitation gives rise to the parametoric resonance. As the excitation amplitude increases, the nonlinear response characteristics of soft and hard spring types as well as chaos were found to appear in this system. The occurrence of chaos was recognized by the time history, Poincare map, phase trajectory, and power spectrum. Furthermore, the sloshing and chaotic motion of the liquid surface were found to appear in the lower frequency range than the parametric resonance and chaotic motion of the cylindrical shell wall.