Numerical Investigation of the Kinematics of the Flexible Composite Wedge in Water Entry Experiments Based on Coupled CFD-FEA Approach Available to Purchase

Water entry is a complex non-linear phenomenon which involves multiphase interaction, and has been of interest in various engineering fields. For example, high speed craft slamming in rough sea, where the craft is frequently launched off the wave and lands on the air-water interface at high impact velocity. Lately, with the use of lightweight material such as composites, makes the effects of hydro elasticity even more crucial for the structural design of the craft. Although there are existing design codes for the design of high speed crafts by various classification societies but this complex phenomenon is not yet incorporated and need to be accessed via direct calculations. In this paper, the effects of hydro elasticity on the composite plate are studied using computational methods. The results from the experimental study of “Free-Falling Wedge with the composite bottom plate” conducted by Javaherian et al. were used for the numerical validation. The computational fluid dynamic model with fluid structure interaction was used to replicate the experimental setup with pressure and displacement probes located in accordance with the experimental design. The magnitude of pressure and displacements of the bottom flexible plate obtained from the numerical model were compared with the experimental data. To study the effects of fluid-structure interaction a nondimensional number R_F, quantifying the hydro elasticity of the wedge plate, proposed by Faltinsen was used. Values of R_F less than 2 are considered flexible and the fluid pressure is modified due to the structural deflection. The R_F value for the flexible composite plate calculated in this study was 0.2.