Water impact of horizontal circular cylinders and cylindrical shells

A two-dimensional boundary element method (BEM) is developed to simulate the water flow during the water impact of a horizontal circular cylinder. Exact free surface conditions are satisfied. The non-viscous flow separation on the curved surface of the cylindrical can be simulated by merging a local analytical solution with the numerical method. The BEM is first applied to solve the water impact of a rigid horizontal circular cylinder. The calculated results are compared with experiments. Good agreement is obtained. The BEM is also applied to solve the water impact problem of an elastic cylindrical shell, while a modal analysis is utilized for structural responses and the hydroelasticity, i.e. water-structure interaction is considered. Flat plate theories are used initially instead of the BEM to avoid the numerical difficulties in the initial stage. The calculated structural responses are compared with the experimental results and reasonable agreement can be achieved. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.