The Effect of Added Mass of Water and Breath Mode in Fluid-Structure Coupled Vibration Analysis

Marine structures are often in contact with inner or outer fluid as stern, ballast and oil tanks. The effect of interaction between fluid and structure has to be taken into consideration when we estimate the dynamic response of the structure appropriately. Fatigue damages can also be sometimes observed in these tanks which seem to be caused by resonance. Thin walled tank structures in ships which are in contact with water and located near engine or propeller where vibration characteristics are strongly affected by the added mass of containing water. Therefore it is essentially important to estimate the added mass effect to predict vibration characteristics of tank structures. But it is difficult to estimate exactly the magnitude of the added mass because this is a fluid-structure interaction problem and is affected by the free surface, vibration modes of structural panels and the depth of water. I have developed a numerical tool of vibration analysis of 3-dimensional tank structure using finite elements for plates and boundary elements for fluid region. In the present study, the effect of added mass of containing water, the effect of structural constraint between panels on the vibration characteristics are investigated numerically and discussed. Especially a natural frequencies by the fluid interaction between 2 panels and a breath mode of the water tank are focused on.