The purpose of this paper is to study and compare two finite element coupling methods to simulate the problem of a body penetrating a free surface. The hydrodynamic impact problem concerns industrial designers in shipbuilding domain. In rough seas, sometimes ships suffer local damages from large water impact loads called slamming impacts. In the framework of a collaboration with a french research company in shipbuilding (Principia Marine) a numerical prediction of the local impulse load on a wedge striking a free surface is investigated by using two methods: penalty and Lagrange multiplier formulations. These methods of coupling, which makes it possible to transmit the efforts in pressure from the Eulerian formulation to the Lagrangian formulation and conversely are relatively recent algorithmic developments. The Euler/Lagrange penalty method 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, the airbag simulation... The explicit coupling based on multiplier approach is a new development, which is compared to the penalty method. For both methods, a parametric study of the local pressure peak is investigated for impact angles from 0 to 30 degrees.

This content is only available via PDF.
You do not currently have access to this content.