Slamming impact induced hydrodynamic response in wave-piercing catamaran beam elements with controller

Abstract

When subjected to a slamming load, wave-piercing catamarans may be vulnerable to damage and deck diving. Aluminum beams are one of the key components of catamaran vessels and improving their stiffness and dynamic smart management is crucial to reducing the impact of waves at sea. The numerical analysis and mathematical modeling of the wave-piercing catamaran beam elements are fresh topics that largely depend on smart control issues. Based on a 2D Wanger type impact force model, this work presents a numerical benchmark study for the hydrodynamic analysis and smart control of wave-piercing catamaran beam elements. The Rankine panel approach also takes into account the impact of the wave-piercing catamaran's forward speed. The wave-piercing catamaran's smart control system consists of a proportional-differential (PD) controller with two piezoelectric layers acting as an actuator and a sensor on the top and bottom surfaces of the beams, respectively. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are employed as reinforcement to increase the stiffness of porous beams while assuming their agglomeration effects based on the Mori-Tanaka model. Refined zigzag shear deformation beam theory (RZSDBT) is used to mathematically represent the smart structure, and the related motion equations are generated using the energy technique. The differential quadrature method (DQM) and the Newmark method are used to solve the framework in order to capture the dynamic deflection and flexural moment and describe the Gibbs phenomenon. The effects of the controller, externally applied voltage, CNTs as reinforcement, forward speed, modification of shape and pressure distribution, porosity, deadrise angle, and external loads caused by demi-hulls and the cross-deck are all investigated using numerical studies. These studies look at how these factors affect dynamic deflection, flexural moment and Gibbs phenomenon. Regarding the primary goal of this work, the findings showed that the harmful effects can be greatly controlled with a PD controller. In other words, we can state unequivocally that the controller's assistance reduces the pressure distribution's discontinuity or spike while enhancing the beam's dry area. Additionally, the dynamic deflection and flexural moment are decreased by 49% and 37%, respectively, by employing the controller. The use of CNTs as beam reinforcement, which can reduce dynamic deflection and flexural moment by around 50% and 33%, respectively, is another goal of this work.