Imagine you are just sitting at your desk having a cup of coffee in front of you. When you are now moving the cup carefully back and forth then you will recognize that the free surface of your coffee is no longer horizontal but it is oscillating up and down perpendicular to the excitation direction. This is called lateral sloshing.

Expanding the focus of applications, lateral sloshing is an undesired disturbance occurring in propellant tanks of space vehicles such as ARIANE V. While carrying large amounts of propellant the liquid is excited due to external oscillations and vibrations. Depending on the excitation amplitude and frequency the liquid sloshing appears in different modes. Some of these modes are introduced in the figures, on the right.

The sloshing facility in the lower figure is used to investigate the behavior of sloshing liquid in lateral excited tanks. The sloshing table is driven by the electric motor and the eccentric device. The vessel platform allows to mount different liquid vessel. The facility supports the measurement of the acting forces and the determination of the liquid surface amplitude during the run.