Impact of floats on water

TL;DR

This paper models the impact of a wedge-shaped body on water, analyzing flow singularities and free surface behavior using conformal transformations and optimization techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mathematical approach combining conformal mapping and optimization to solve complex free-surface flow problems involving wedge impacts.

Findings

Flow singularities at wetted region ends are characterized.

Flow separation at sideslip is analyzed.

A new method for solving free-surface impact problems is developed.

Abstract

The impact of a wedge-shaped body on the free surface of a weightless inviscid incompressible liquid is considered. Both symmetrical and unsymmetrical entries at constant velocity are dealt with. The differential problem corresponds to the physico-mathematical model of a distribution of potential singularities and, in particular, the flow singularities at the ends of the wetted regions are represented by sinks. A conformal transformation of the flow field is adopted and the unknown intensities of the discontinuities are found by an optimization procedure, together with the solution of the nonlinear free-surface problem. The flow separation at a sideslip is also considered.