A three-dimensional nonlinear hydroelastic model for rectangular floating elastic plates and the examination on the peak frequency with maximum nonlinear response

Abstract

The nonlinear interaction between nonlinear waves and a three-dimensional floating elastic plate is simulated by a time-domain nonlinear potential flow model. On the free surface, the 4th-order Runge-Kutta scheme with a semi-Lagrangian approach is adopted in the time-stepping process. The classical thin-plate theory is selected to simulate the motion of the elastic plate. The higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM) is employed to solve the corresponding boundary value problem at each time step. After validation of the present model, a particular frequency phenomenon is successfully observed in a three-dimensional hydroelastic problem, which shows that the second harmonic displacements at the centre point of the upwave side and downwave side of the elastic plate near a particular frequency are significantly large. In addition, the effect of the plate width on the particular frequency phenomenon is discussed.