Abstract: Nonlinear dynamics of liquid-filled rectangular tank with elastic appendages are studied. Based on the assumption of ideal fluid, the coupling dynamic equations of rigid tank, elastic appendages and liquid fuel are derived using H-O principle. In the case of pitch excitation, the modified potential function and wave height function are introduced to describe the moving boundary of fluid, then Galerkin's method is used to discretize the dynamic equations into ordinary differential equations. The natural frequencies of the coupling system are formulated in liquid depth, the length of the tank, etc. The formulae are confirmed by numerical simulations, which also show that the effects of liquid and elastic appendages on the attitude angular of rigid.

Key words: liquid-filled rectangular tank, elastic appendage, nonlinear dynamics, natural frequency, pitch