EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF TURBULENT BOUNDARY LAYER EXCITATION ACTING ON THE SONAR DOME

Wall pressure fluctuations induced by turbulent boundary layer along the bulbous of a ship cause sonar dome vibrations, which can interfere with the correct functioning of the array of sonar transducer. The aim of the present work is the assessment of an integrated numerical - experimental procedure for the modelling of the hydrodynamic load generated by turbulent boundary layer acting along the bulbous of a fast ship. The turbulent boundary layer on the bulbous can present several differences with respect to the flat plate studies because of the presence of hull surface curvatures and of the free surface that produce pressure gradient variation along the bulbous surface. To examine these features an experimental campaign was performed in a towing tank on two different scaled models of the bulbous bow of a vessel aimed at characterizing wall pressure spectra.