CFD Validation Studies of Slamming Pressures During Wedge Drop Impact

Impact loads due to slamming are one of the critical design issues for high-speed planing crafts. CFD validation for slamming loads is presented in this work using wedge drop experimental data. Two different sets of experiments are used: 10° deadrise angle drops by Carderock, and 20° deadrise experiments carried out at USNA. Both experiments use rigid structures and measure high-frequency pressure data at different locations on the wedge bottom. Uncertainty analyses of the repeated experiments are carried out for the peak pressure values. CFD uncertainties are quantified through systematic time-step verification studies. Validation studies are carried out by comparing the simulation error values with the validation uncertainty intervals defined by combining the experimental and the simulation numerical uncertainties. The results from current OpenFoam CFD simulations are compared with the previous simulations against the 10° deadrise experiments using five different CFD solvers ranging from potential flow to URANS/LES solvers. A summary of the state of the art is provided including the grid sizes and the computational cost requirements. The next step after the current rigid structure studies will include the FSI validation studies against flexible bottom wedge drop experiments.