WATER-ENTRY FOR A WEDGE IN ARBITRARY WATER DEPTH

Numerical and experimental results are presented for the two-dimensional entry of a wedge into initially calm water of arbitrary depth. In the numerical computation, the flow field is solved by the boundary element method with nonlinear free surface boundary conditions. The case of the impact pressure in shallow water depth, which is problematical in analytical method, can be evaluated and expressed in the concept of relative water depth. The results show that the magnitude of impact pressure in shallow water is larger than that in deep water. To verify the validity of this numerical analysis, some experiments are carried out in a laboratory channel. The measured results are compared with numerical predictions, and quantitative agreements are obtained.