Dynamics and control of a spacecraft with a moving, pulsating ball in a spherical cavity

A model with two interacting bodies, for a spacecraft with liquid, has been developed. The spacecraft without liquid is the "tank" and is characterized by its inertial properties and the location and size of a spherical cavity. In the cavity is located the "slug", a sphere of uniform density with a variable radius. At the point of contact...

On transforming accelerometer data to angular rate

The representation of the acceleration field on a rigid body contains as parameters its angular rate and acceleration vectors plus the acceleration vector at a single point of the body. A linear accelerometer measures a local component of the field. From the response of different accelerometers, three quadratic forms in the angular rate of the...

On the simulation of fluid spacecraft interactive dynamics

The present report contains a study on the simulation of interactive fluid spacecraft dynamics. The equations of motion of the two dimensional full tank case as well as the corresponding finite different discretized equations are presented. The numerical solution of this system is studied. Results are presented for a number of cases. Based on...

Viscous-inviscid interaction, partitioned dynamical systems and i(n)te(g)ration

Time-integration methods for partitioned dynamical systems and iterative methods for viscous-inviscid interaction are unified using the language of linear algebra. In this way all expertise built up in viscous-inviscid interaction methods becomes available for the integration of partitioned dynamical systems. This report applies some well...

Axisymmetric liquid sloshing under low-g conditions: numerical simulations method (-reference manual-)

A mathematical model is presented for the description of axisymmetric three-dimensional transient flow of a viscous liquid in a partially filled cylindrical container under low gravity conditions. The mathematical model consists of the Navier-Stokes equations with either no-slip condition at the solid boundaries, and with the continuity of...

Two-dimensional modelling of capillary liquid flow in a thin annulus

One of the experiments performed on board Spacelab, involves a partially filled annular cylinder which is subjected to prescribed motions (Ref. 1). The interest in this configuration arises from its practical use; for instance, the coolant in IRAS was stored in an annulus-like tank. In this report, a mathematical model for the transient liquid...

Liquid sloshing under low-g conditions: Mathematical model and basic numerical method

In this report a mathematical model is presented which can describe the dynamic behaviour of liquids in partially filled containers under low gravitational conditions. This model will be used for the evaluation of a series of experiments which the NLR has planned to be performed onboard Spacelab. Furthermore, the report contains a description of...