Hydroelastic response of floating elastic discs to regular waves. Part 1. Wave basin experiments

A series of wave basin experiments is reported that investigates the flexural response of one or two floating thin elastic discs to monochromatic waves. The work is motivated by numerical model validation. Innovative techniques are used to ensure the experimental configuration is consistent with the model. This demands linear motions, time-harmonic conditions, homogeneity of the plate and the restriction of horizontal motions of the disc or discs. An optical remote sensing device is employed to record the deflection of the discs accurately. Tests involving a single disc and two discs are conducted for a range of disc thicknesses, incident wave steepnesses, frequencies and, in the case of two discs, geometrical arrangements. A data processing technique is used to decompose the raw data into its spectral harmonics and filter the higher-order components. Pointwise comparisons of the linear first-order component of the experimental deflection with numerical predictions are presented. Satisfying agreement is found, although the model consistently over predicts the deflection. Disc-disc interactions are observed in the two-disc tests. A brief discussion of the shortcomings of the pointwise analysis, with associated possible sources of discrepancy, provides a link to the study reported in Part 2 (Montiel et al. J. Fluid Mech., vol. 723, 2013, pp. 629-652).