Numerical modeling of natural vibrations of coaxial shells partially filled with fluid, taking into account the effects on the free surface

Abstract

This work is devoted to the numerical analysis of vertical elastic coaxial cylindrical shells completely or partially filled with a quiescent compressible fluid with account for sloshing of its free surface. The problem is solved in the axisymmetric formulation using a semi-analytical version of the finite element method. The fluid medium is described by the wave equation, which together with the conditions prescribed at its boundaries is reduced to the weak form by the Bubnov - Galerkin method. A mathematical formulation of the dynamic problem for thin-walled structures is developed using the variational principle of virtual displacements and linear theory of thin shells based on Kirchhoff - Love hypotheses. The fluid pressure on the walls of the structure is calculated according to Bernoulli's equation. Sloshing modes caused by gravitational effects on free surface of liquid medium are excluded from the resulting system of equations through the use of the iteration dynamic condensation method. The numerical model has been verified by comparing it with the known data for the case of a single shell partially filled with fluid. The influence of the fluid level on the lowest natural frequencies of the system vibrations at different variants of kinematic boundary conditions for shells (rigid clamping at both edges, cantilever support) and different widths of the annular gap between them has been evaluated. It has been found that for the examined configurations, the level of the fluid in the annular channel has a stronger influence on the frequency spectrum compared to the level of fluid in the cavity of the inner shell due to the fact that vibration frequencies change in a wider range.