Slamming load and hydroelastic structural response of bow flare areas of aluminium fast displacement crafts

Abstract

The paper evaluates the response of an aluminium stiffened panel of a fast displacement craft under bow flare slamming loads by using three finite element methods: (1) a linear static analysis to calculate the structural elastic deformation and stress under the design load; (2) an independent analysis of the slamming load and the elastic structural response (a decoupled method); (3) a method that couples their interaction (a fully coupled method). These methods are compared to analyse the hydroelastic effect when predicting the structural loading and response. Similar results are obtained by the three methods and the linear static analysis based on design load evaluates with accuracy the local structural deformation and stress. The primary objective of the present work is to investigate the strength and safety of bow-flared structures when designing high-speed and fast displacement aluminium crafts subjected to slamming pressure loads. The influence of spray rail on the bow-flared slamming pressures and the effect of boundary conditions on the elastic structural responses are discussed.