Slamming loads and responses on a non-prismatic stiffened aluminium wedge: Part II. Numerical simulations

Abstract

An experimental study was carried out to examine the impact-induced loads and structural responses of a three-dimensional non-prismatic aluminium wedge. The findings of the experimental study were presented in the first part of this publication, entitled “Slamming loads and responses on a non-prismatic stiffened aluminium wedge: Part I. Experimental study.” This paper describes the second part of the study, which deals with numerical simulations of slamming loads acting on the wedge and its dynamic responses. Two different two-way coupling methods are assessed and compared to simulate the water entry problem. Initially, an explicit nonlinear finite element method with a Multi-Material Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (MMALE) solver is employed to evaluate the elastic response of the structure following a free-fall water impact. Subsequently, the hydroelastic slamming problem is modelled using a two-way coupled technique with a k-ε turbulence model and implicit unsteady solver for both the fluid and structural domains (Star-CCM+/ABAQUS). The effect of viscosity on slamming loads and responses was examined, and numerical results are compared with experimental data. To investigate the effect of rigidity on structural response and bottom deflection, the wedge was designed with bottom plates of varying thickness. The computed results from the two numerical models and the experimental data are in good agreement. The study concluded that the bottom plates deformation affects hydrodynamic loads during slamming. It is also observed that impact-induced loads depend on the water impact velocity and the flexibility of the bottom plates. This suggests that the slamming pressure increases with an increase in impact velocity and decreases when the structures become more flexible. According to this study, both numerical models are suitable for accurate and efficient computations of hydroelastic slamming; however, the MMALE method results in larger numerical fluctuations.