Experimental study of hydrodynamic impact pressures on high speed planing craft

This paper presents an experimental research for the assessment of pressure field on the bottom of a mono-hedral hard chine hull at high relative speed. Tests have been performed in rough sea for two wave lengths at Fn ranging from 0.79 to 1.46. The measured pressures have been analysed in time and in frequency domain. The pressure distribution along a rectangular panel of the hull bottom has been identified. The comparison of measured values and those ones provided by Classification Societies has been performed and pressure results have been used to investigate the interactions between the fluid and the craft structure. The elastic behaviour of different bottom panels is analysed, and the scantling of a typical bottom panel, made from four materials, have been calculated, in order to investigate the structural dynamic behaviour.