Numerical simulation of transient hydroelastic response of a floating beam induced by landing loads

The dynamic response of a floating platform under the effects of impulsive and moving loads is of concern in various areas of engineering technology, such as floating airports, floating bridges and buoyant tunnels, among others. In the present work, the floating platform is simplified as a flexible beam floating in an infinite water domain. The water is assumed to be compressible and inviscid, whose governing equation is formulated in terms of the hydrodynamic pressure variable. The surface disturbance satisfies a linear free-surface wave condition and a radiation wave condition at an artificially truncated boundary. A time-domain finite element model is developed to analyze this fluid-structure interactive dynamical system, which exhibits strong coupling between the system's components. The numerical results are compared with the experimental and numerical ones. The results of comparison confirmed the validity of the proposed approach. The influences on the dynamic responses of floating beam of some factors were studied. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.