Attitude dynamics of a cylinder floating in immiscible fluids

This study elaborates the attitude dynamics of a cylinder floating in two immiscible fluids. A cubic polynomial was derived based on the attitude angle, weight, center of gravity, and the density ratio of fluids. The numerical solution was validated by experimental data. Under prescribed constraints for the physical model, we have found that multiple solutions exist for cases with no radially biased center of gravity. When the center of gravity is biased, the attitude angles change abruptly around some critical values, which is related to the density ratio. Moreover, the attitude angles are less sensitive to the varying density ratios when the cylinder is heavier. The results also reveal that the cylinder tends to be vertical for nearly the whole range of density ratios when the center of gravity is slightly biased radially.