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I often notice tankers of the type illustrated in the figure below.

The cross section is neither circular nor elliptical. Is it a "notable" geometric shape?

Which function or property does it optimize? Something like the height of the center of mass subject to a fixed-volume constraint? Or the area of the interface between the liquid and the gaseous portions of a liquefied gas?

I don't have any clue, but I guess there must be a specific objective function.

Cross section of a tanker

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  • $\begingroup$ It is unclear what "this shape" is. It is also unclear if it optimizes anything. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 2 at 18:59
  • $\begingroup$ I've replaced "this shape" with this "this cross section". I guess that there should be a reason behind the choice of this shape. Very much like the catenary and cooling towers optimize some property (e.g. the potential energy of a massive string or the amount of material needed to ensure structural stability). $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 2 at 19:07
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    $\begingroup$ Andrea, google "sloshing" or "slosh dynamics" and you'll get a clearer idea of what happens. I have an ancestral memoir dying me that years ago Silvano Matarasso was working on such problems, but this is no more than a haze memoir. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 3 at 5:26
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    $\begingroup$ Thank you for the hint about sloshing, I didn't know about it. I am glad to see that a great mathematician as Matarasso was interested in this kind of problems. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 3 at 8:58

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