Nonlinear Oscillations in Rectangular Tanks

A nonlinear, dispersive, dissipative model is developed to describe the fluid motion in a rectangular tank which is moved by an oscillatory and transient translational motion. A linear model for this motion is also presented. Experiments conducted indicate that for a continuous excitation at or near a resonant mode of oscillation, the linear theory becomes inadequate and the nonlinear, dispersive, dissipative theory must be used. For a transient excitation, the validity of the linear theory is found to depend on the magnitude of the Stokes parameter.