Dynamic coupling in Cooker's sloshing experiment with baffles

This paper investigates the dynamic coupling between fluid sloshing and the motion of the vessel containing the fluid, for the case when the vessel is partitioned using non-porous baffles. The vessel is modelled using Cooker's sloshing configuration [M. J. Cooker, "Water waves in a suspended container," Wave Motion 20, 385-395 (1994)]. Cooker's configuration is extended to include n - 1 non-porous baffles which divide the vessel into n separate fluid compartments each with a characteristic length scale. The problem is analysed for arbitrary fill depth in each compartment, and it is found that a multitude of resonance situations can occur in the system, from 1 : 1 resonances to (n + 1)-fold 1 : 1: ... : 1 resonances, as well as l : m: ... : n for natural numbers l, m, n, depending upon the system parameter values. The conventional wisdom is that the principle role of baffles is to damp the fluid motion. Our results show that in fact without special consideration, the baffles can lead to enhancement of the fluid motion through resonance. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.