Alexander Timokha

Bio: Alexander Timokha is an academic researcher from Norwegian University of Science and Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Nonlinear system & Boundary value problem. The author has an hindex of 22, co-authored 74 publications receiving 2047 citations. Previous affiliations of Alexander Timokha include University of the Sciences & National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Multidimensional modal analysis of nonlinear sloshing in a rectangular tank with finite water depth

Abstract: Multidimensional modal analysis of nonlinear sloshing in a rectangular tank with finite water depth

An adaptive multimodal approach to nonlinear sloshing in a rectangular tank

Abstract: Two-dimensional nonlinear sloshing of an incompressible fluid with irrotational flow in a rectangular tank is analysed by a modal theory. Innite tank roof height and no overturning waves are assumed. The modal theory is based on an innite-dimensional system of nonlinear ordinary dierential equations coupling generalized coordinates of the free surface and fluid motion associated with the amplitude response of natural modes. This modal system is asymptotically reduced to an innite-dimensional system of ordinary dierential equations with fth-order polynomial nonlinearity by assuming suciently small fluid motion relative to fluid depth and tank breadth. When introducing inter-modal ordering, the system can be detuned and truncated to describe resonant sloshing in dierent domains of the excitation period. Resonant sloshing due to surge and pitch sinusoidal excitation of the primary mode is considered. By assuming that each mode has only one main harmonic an adaptive procedure is proposed to describe direct and secondary resonant responses when Moiseyev-like relations do not agree with experiments, i.e. when the excitation amplitude is not very small, and the fluid depth is close to the critical depth or small. Adaptive procedures have been established for a wide range of excitation periods as long as the mean fluid depth h is larger than 0.24 times the tank breadth l. Steady-state results for wave elevation, horizontal force and pitch moment are experimentally validated except when heavy roof impact occurs. The analysis of small depth requires that many modes have primary order and that each mode may have more than one main harmonic. This is illustrated by an example for h=l =0 :173, where the previous model by Faltinsen et al. (2000) failed. The new model agrees well with experiments.

Resonant three-dimensional nonlinear sloshing in a square-base basin

Abstract: An asymptotic modal system is derived for modelling nonlinear sloshing in a rectangular tank with similar width and breadth. The system couples nonlinearly nine modal functions describing the time evolution of the natural modes. Two primary modes are assumed to be dominant. The system is equivalent to the model by Faltinsen et al. (2000) for the two-dimensional case. It is validated for resonant sloshing in a square-base basin. Emphasis is on finite fluid depth but the behaviour with decreasing depth to intermediate depths is also discussed. The tank is forced in surge/sway/roll/pitch with frequency close to the lowest degenerate natural frequency. The theoretical part concentrates on periodic solutions of the modal system (steady-state wave motions) for longitudinal (along the walls) and diagonal (in the vertical diagonal plane) excitations. Three types of solutions are established for each case: (i) ‘planar’/‘diagonal’ resonant standing waves for longitudinal/diagonal forcing, (ii) ‘swirling’ waves moving along tank walls clockwise or counterclockwise and (iii) ‘square’-like resonant standing wave coupling in-phase oscillations of both the lowest modes. The frequency domains for stable and unstable waves (i)–(iii), the contribution of higher modes and the influence of decreasing fluid depth are studied in detail. The zones where either unstable steady regimes exist or there are two or more stable periodic solutions with similar amplitudes are found. New experimental results are presented and show generally good agreement with theoretical data on effective domains of steady-state sloshing. Three-dimensional sloshing regimes demonstrate a significant contribution of higher modes in steady-state and transient flows.

Asymptotic modal approximation of nonlinear resonant sloshing in a rectangular tank with small fluid depth

Abstract: The modal system describing nonlinear sloshing with inviscid flows in a rectangular rigid tank is revised to match both shallow fluid and secondary (internal) resonance asymptotics. The main goal is to examine nonlinear resonant waves for intermediate depth/breadth ratio 0.1 [lsim ] h/l [lsim ] 0.24 forced by surge/pitch excitation with frequency in the vicinity of the lowest natural frequency. The revised modal equations take full account of nonlinearities up to fourth-order polynomial terms in generalized coordinates and h/l and may be treated as a modal Boussinesq-type theory. The system is truncated with a high number of modes and shows good agreement with experimental data by Rognebakke (1998) for transient motions, where previous finite depth modal theories failed. However, difficulties may occur when experiments show significant energy dissipation associated with run-up at the walls and wave breaking. After reviewing published results on damping rates for lower and higher modes, the linear damping terms due to the linear laminar boundary layer near the tank's surface and viscosity in the fluid bulk are incorporated. This improves the simulation of transient motions. The steady-state response agrees well with experiments by Chester & Bones (1968) for shallow water, and Abramson et al. (1974), Olsen & Johnsen (1975) for intermediate fluid depths. When h/l [lsim ] 0.05, convergence problems associated with increasing the dimension of the modal system are reported.

Two-dimensional resonant piston-like sloshing in a moonpool

Abstract: This paper presents combined theoretical and experimental studies of the two-dimensional piston-like steady-state motions of a fluid in a moonpool formed by two rectangular hulls (e.g. a dual pontoon or catamaran). Vertical harmonic excitation of the partly submerged structure in calm water is assumed. A high-precision analytically oriented linear-potential-flow method, which captures the singular behaviour of the velocity potential at the corner points of the rectangular structure, is developed. The linear steady-state results are compared with new experimental data and show generally satisfactory agreement. The influence of vortex shedding has been evaluated by using the local discrete-vortex method of Graham (1980). It was shown to be small. Thus, the discrepancy between the theory and experiment may be related to the free-surface nonlinearity.

Boundary Layer Theory

Abstract: The boundary layer equations for plane, incompressible, and steady flow are $$\matrix{ {u{{\partial u} \over {\partial x}} + v{{\partial u} \over {\partial y}} = - {1 \over \varrho }{{\partial p} \over {\partial x}} + v{{{\partial ^2}u} \over {\partial {y^2}}},} \cr {0 = {{\partial p} \over {\partial y}},} \cr {{{\partial u} \over {\partial x}} + {{\partial v} \over {\partial y}} = 0.} \cr }$$

Liquid Sloshing Dynamics

Abstract: Preface Introduction 1. Fluid field equations and modal analysis in rigid containers 2. Linear forced sloshing 3. Viscous damping and sloshing suppression devices 4. Weakly nonlinear lateral sloshing 5. Equivalent mechanical models 6. Parametric sloshing (Faraday's waves) 7. Dynamics of liquid sloshing impact 8. Linear interaction of liquid sloshing with elastic containers 9. Nonlinear interaction under external and parametric excitations 10. Interactions with support structures and tuned sloshing absorbers 11. Dynamics of rotating fluids 12. Microgravity sloshing dynamics Bibliography Index.

Boundary Value Problems of Mathematical Physics

Abstract: The goal of this final chapter is to show how the boundary value problems of mathematical physics can be solved by the methods of the preceding chapters. This will be done by solving a variety of specific problems that illustrate the principal types of problems that were formulated in Chapter 7. Additional applications are developed in the Exercises. The primary solution method is Fourier’s method of separation of variables and the associated Sturm-Liouville theory of Chapter 8.

Variational Principles in Mechanics

Abstract: The recognition that minimizing an integral function through variational methods (as in the last chapters) leads to the second-order differential equations of Euler-Lagrange for the minimizing function made it natural for mathematicians of the eighteenth century to ask for an integral quantity whose minimization would result in Newton’s equations of motion. With such a quantity, a new principle through which the universe acts would be obtained. The belief that “something” should be minimized was in fact a long-standing conviction of natural philosophers who felt that God had constructed the universe to operate in the most efficient manner—but how that efficiency was to be assessed was subject to interpretation. However, Fermat (1657) had already invoked such a principle successfully in declaring that light travels through a medium along the path of least time of transit. Indeed, it was by recognizing that the brachistochrone should give the least time of transit for light in an appropriate medium that Johann Bernoulli “proved” that it should be a cycloid in 1697. (See Problem 1.1.) And it was Johann Bernoulli who in 1717 suggested that static equilibrium might be characterized through requiring that the work done by the external forces during a small displacement from equilibrium should vanish. This “principle of virtual work” marked a departure from other minimizing principles in that it incorporated stationarity—even local stationarity—(tacitly) in its formulation. Efforts were made by Leibniz, by Euler, and most notably, by Lagrange to define a principle of least action (kinetic energy), but it was not until the last century that a truly satisfactory principle emerged, namely, Hamilton’s principle of stationary action (c. 1835) which was foreshadowed by Poisson (1809) and polished by Jacobi (1848) and his successors into an enduring landmark of human intellect, one, moreover, which has survived transition to both relativity and quantum mechanics. (See [L], [Fu] and Problems 8.11 8.12.)