Modeling and Control of Fuel Sloshing and its Effect on Spacecraft Attitude

Sloshing phenomenon in spacecraft fuel tank during orbital maneuver, causes adverse effects on spacecraft attitude. Therefore, before orbital maneuvers, modeling fuel sloshing and determining appropriate method for controlling it has to be carried out. The aim of this paper is to model slosh dynamics by using double pendulum model in two-dimensional space. Spacecraft maneuver and pendulums motion are considered in 2D-coordinate, so coupled spacecraft and pendulums dynamic system are 5 degrees of freedom systems. Here, linear control methods (PD and LQR), and also nonlinear control methods (Lyapunov and fuzzy) are determined to stabilize dynamic parameters of the introduced system. Simulation results show that designed controllers have good performance to achieve stabilization of the parameters.