In fluid dynamics, slosh refers to the movement of liquid inside another object (which is, typically, also undergoing motion).
Strictly speaking, the liquid must have a free surface to constitute a slosh dynamics problem, where the dynamics of the liquid can interact with the container to alter the system dynamics significantly. Important examples include propellant slosh in spacecraft tanks and rockets (especially upper stages), and the free surface effect (cargo slosh) in ships and trucks transporting liquids (for example oil and gasoline).
However, it has become common to refer to liquid motion in a completely filled tank, i.e. without a free surface, as "fuel slosh".
Such motion is characterized by "inertial waves" and can be an important effect in spinning spacecraft dynamics. Extensive mathematical and empirical relationships have been derived to describe liquid slosh. These types of analyses are typically undertaken using computational fluid dynamics and finite element methods to solve the fluid-structure interaction problem, especially if the solid container is flexible. Relevant fluid dynamics non-dimensional parameters include the Bond number, the Weber number, and the Reynolds number.
Slosh is an important effect for spacecraft, ships, some land vehicles and some aircraft. Slosh was a factor in the Falcon 1 second test flight anomaly, and has been implicated in various other spacecraft anomalies, including a near-disaster with the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR Shoemaker) satellite.