Free surface flow impacting on an elastic structure: Experiment versus numerical simulation

The purpose of this study is to investigate the phenomenon of free surface flow impacting on elastic structures, which is a research topic of great interest in ship and ocean engineering. A series of quasi two-dimensional experiments on dam-break with an elastic plate are conducted. The main features of free surface flow impacting on elastic structures including large impacting force, structural vibration, violent free surface flow, are investigated. The coupled FDM-FEM method developed by the authors is applied for numerical simulation of such dam-break problem. Extensive analysis and discussion based on the comparisons between experimental data and numerical results are made and presented in this paper.