Fluid-Structure Coupling in a Water-Wedge Impact Problem Available to Purchase

Slamming is a large water impact load on a body hitting a free surface. In rough seas, sometimes ships suffer local damages from slamming impacts. For high-speeds ships, frequent impact loads accelerate fatigue failures of hulls. Principia Marine, Research Company in Shipbuilding (formerly IRCN, Institut de Recherche en Construction Navale) carries out a study on the slamming modeling with an explicit finite element code. This paper presents the prediction of the local impulse load on a wedge striking a free surface. The fluid-structure interactions is managed by an Euler/Lagrange penalty coupling. This method of coupling, which makes it possible to transmit the efforts in pressure of the Eulerian grid to the Lagrangian grid and conversely is relatively a recent algorithmic development. It was successfully used in many scientific and industrial applications: the modeling of the attack of birds on the fuselage of a Jet for the Boeing Corporation, the underwater explosion shaking the oil platforms, and airbag simulation... The slamming modeling has required some enhancements of fluid structure coupling algorithm. However, some numerical problems remains opened and will be topics for future research.