Active Sloshing Control by Using Movable Plates Device Based on Flow Control Method

This paper deals with an experimental study of an active control technique for the suppression of sloshing based on flow control in the tank. In this paper, we proposed the active feedback control method by using movable plates which are set in liquid. In the experiment, the present method is applied to the 2-dimensional problem of sloshing which occurs in the rectangular tank due to a horizontal excitation. The sloshing are suppressed by the active feedback to the rotation of the movable plate installed in liquid. The suppression performances are examined by changing the phase difference between the control signal of rotation angles of the movable plate and the liquid surface displacement (phase-shift). The performance of proposed method is evaluated by the time history, the root mean square value and frequency-response of the surface wave displacement under the active feedback control. Moreover, the effects of movable plate number and installation position on the suppression performance are clarified. On the other hand, the visualization experiment is conducted to obtain the flow pattern in the tank when the sloshing is controlled by the present method. The decreasing mechanism of the surface wave is discussed by the result of the visualization experiment. As a result, it is shown that the proposed control devics and active control method suppress the sloshing effectively. Furthermore, it is found that the changes of flow pattern by the drive of movable plate cause the suppression of sloshing in the visualization experiment.