Experimental investigation of slamming characteristics of stiffened elastic wedges with different deadrise angles: Part I–Slamming pressure

Wedge–water impact is an important issue in fundamental research on slamming dynamics. In this paper, it is aimed to investigate the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics and hydroelastic effects of slamming pressure of stiffened elastic wedge with different deadrise angle during the water entry process. A series of results of an experimental investigation are presented. We observed a slow and smooth process of decay in the velocity of the wedge from its contact with water to complete immersion into it during experiments. Error in its velocity between the experimental and theoretical values was within 5%, which verified the reliability of the experimental data and process. The results of the fully non-linear three-dimensional method that considered the gravity of the jet and changes in velocity were closer to the experimental values than those based on Wagner's theory. We experimentally measured speed of propagation of the peak pressure was approximately 0.78–0.81 times of the value based on Wagner's formula. The more significant the hydroelastic effects, the greater the contribution of the 1st order natural frequency to the peak slamming pressure. The work here provides rich experimental data for future research on the impact between stiffened elastic wedges and water.