Slamming Events of a Planing Hull and Wedge Water Entry Experiment: Comparisons and Insights on Fluid-Structure Interaction

Both towing tank experiments and wedge drop experiments are used to experimentally study slamming events on planning craft. The work presented in this paper shows a unique comparison between these two experiments. The first experiment was a towing tank test of a rigid hull in waves conducted at the U.S. Naval Academy. The second experiment was a series of free-falling water entry tests on a wedge conducted at Virginia Tech. In this paper, comparisons are drawn between the two experiments by using non-dimensional analysis and isolating similar slamming events. The non-dimensional impact velocities are chosen to be identical.