Experimental hydroelastic characterization of slamming loaded marine panels

• The paper considers hydroelasticity in experimental studies on slamming loaded marine panels.
• Experimental data is compared with semi-empiric expression for the pressure distributions.
• Time histories from experiments are compared with the corresponding rigid/quasi-static solutions.
• Clear hydroelastic effects are seen relative to the rigid/quasi-static reference solutions.
• Comparison with design limits from DNV highlights the range of most relevant impact situations.

The paper presents a method to experimentally characterize the significance of hydroelasticity for slamming loaded marine panels. The methodology is based on a large number of systematical experiments of slamming loaded panels from which semi-empiric expressions for the pressure distributions are derived. Finite element simulations are used to obtain rigid/quasi-static reference solutions. Hydroelastic effects are quantified by comparing deflections and strains from experiments with the corresponding non-hydroelastic reference solutions. The study shows that the largest hydro-elastic effects appear to be a time-lag effect, which however does not seem to affect the structural response magnitudes dramatically. The most significant hydroelastic effects can be expected to be close to the panel supports for very flexible structures or sandwich constructions. The results are also discussed with reference to classification rules which indicate that hydroelastic effects are small in the design of conventional ship hull structures.