Investigation of hydroelastic effect in analysis of high-speed craft

Hydroelastic effect in bottom slamming problem of high-speed craft is one of the most challenging issues in structural design. In this paper, numerical method is used to investigate the hydroelastic effect in bottom-water impact analysis of high-speed monohull craft. Slamming with two viewpoints of rigid and elastic structures (hydroelastic effect) is modelled by coupled computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and finite element method (FEM) techniques. The results showed that considering hydroelastic effect, especially in high-impact speed, reduces the structural deformations and stresses compared with quasi-statistic analysis. The effect of different parameters, such as boundary condition, plate properties, wedge deadrise angle, and impact velocity in slamming problem, was investigated. The results for aluminium and steel plate with the same bending strength showed that dynamic characteristic of plate material is a major parameter in hydroelastic analysis result. Finally, a simplified method is used to apply the effect of hydroelasticity in bottom plate design. This work is hoped to advance the hydroelastic analysis art in bottom structural design of high-speed monohull craft.