Impact of rigid and elastic systems over the water surface

In this paper hydrodynamic and elastic forces arising in a simple system impacting on the water surface are considered. First the impact of a single rigid wedge is analyzed and then the case of two elastically coupled bodies, where the lower one is a wedge directly impacting on the water surface. The analysis is performed by a simplified theoretical model and by a numerical simulation of the fluid-structure interaction. The characteristic maxima in the time histories of the hydrodynamic and elastic forces are theoretically evaluated in terms of the impact parameters, such as the deadrise angle of the wedge, the entry velocity, the stiffness and the masses. Results obtained by numerical simulations validate the theoretical estimate.