Nonlinear dynamic analysis of the interaction between a two-dimensional rubberlike membrane and a liquid in a rectangular tank

In the aerospace industry, a rubberlike membrane and liquid interaction like in a rubber bag formed into a solid container has been used for the three axis control of satellites. This paper considers the two dimensional rectangular tank filled with a liquid of which surface is covered by a rubber membrane. The membrane is assumed to be the rubberlike membrane which includes material and geometrical nonlinearities. To overcome the moving boundary problem due to large deformations, an Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) description was used to define the moving boundaries. The interaction problem in a rectangular tank was evaluated by comparing it with the sloshing model and previous theories. The results present the importance of the nonlinearity arising from the membrane itself. Nevertheless, the nonlinearity of a liquid still plays an important role in larger amplitude oscillations.