Prediction of slamming pressure considering fluid-structure interaction. Part II: Derivation of empirical formulations

This is Part II in a series of papers. Part I [1] investigated the slamming responses of flexible flat stiffened steel and aluminum plates using the nonlinear explicit finite element code LS-Dyna with the Multi-Material Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (MMALE) solver. Subsequently, a simplified finite element FSI model of water hitting structures that is realistically close to the slamming phenomenon occurring on the bottom part of offshore structures was proposed. The proposed FSI methodology presented in Part I was verified by comparison with the relevant test data. It was evident that the use of the proposed numerical method presented in Part I was very effective for a benchmarking investigation of slamming load considering the hydroelastic effect. However, the method required much effort in terms of computation time and power analysis resources. The present study, Part II, aimed, as an alternative to the FSI analysis approach, to develop empirical formulae for prediction of slamming loads acting on deformable flat stiffened plates used in marine applications. This paper begins by describing the limitations of the existing approaches based on theoretical, experimental and even numerical studies conducted in the past for estimation of slamming loads. Next, it presents, based on the simulation methodology developed in Part I, rigorous parametric studies that had been performed on actual scantlings of marine-seagoing structures. The effects of structural geometry and water impact velocity on slamming pressure are then investigated in detail. Subsequently, the parametric results are analyzed and utilized to derive empirical formulations for the prediction of slamming loads acting on flat stiffened plates of marine structures. The accuracy and reliability of the proposed formulations are established by comparison with the results of the test and other existing formulations. The proposed formulations are expected to be used for the purposes of the design without any time-consuming FSI analysis of advanced and optimal structures that are robust to slamming.