In this paper the dynamic characteristics of a spinning spacecraft par
tially filled with liquid are investigated under gravity environment.
The governing equations include centrifugal inertial force, Coriolis f
orce and spatially homogeneous vorticity. Suppose that the liquid in a
rigid tank is ideal and incompressible. Viscous dissipation is relate
d by the boundary layer theory. The boundary value problems of liquid
sloshing and the differential equations of the fluid-rigid coupled sys
tem are derived and solved by using three dimensional boundary element
method. Using the energy sink theory, the nutation time constant of t
he spinning spacecraft is predicted numerically. (C) 1997 Elsevier Sci
ence Ltd.