In this paper, the simulation of the interaction between three-dimension solitary wave and horizontal plate is investigated using the moving particle semi-implicit and finite element coupled method (MPS-FEM). The MPS method is used to calculate the fluid domain, while the FEM is adopted to solve the structure domain. The simulation of solitary wave slamming onto the flexible plate is initially conducted, the effects of wave amplitude and plate elevation on the wave-induced impact force are investigated. The interaction between wave and flexible plate is finally compared with that regarding the rigid plate to study the contribution of the structural flexibility to the wave-induced force and energy dissipation.
Plate-like offshore structures, such as the pier, jetty and very large floating structure (VLFS), are vulnerable to fluid impact loads. Especially the VLFS, whose stiffness is relatively small, presents the similar behavior to that of a flexible plate above the water surface. When encountering extreme wave, the plate may produce elastic vibration and considerable deformation which would bring the new challenges for the structural safety. The study of Fluid-Structure interaction (FSI) problems due to the fluid impact loads onto the structures, becomes of paramount importance in the field of naval architecture and ocean engineering.
Experimental studies in FSI problems are scarce and there are only a few papers involved these problems, e.g. Cox et al. (2002), Guomo et al. (2007) and Nelli et al. (2017). In addition, various numerical methods have been conducted in order to simulate FSI problems. By using finite element method, Irahpanah (1983) simulated the impact of wave on horizontal platform, analyzed the wave-induced load at the bottom of the deck. Seiffert et al. (2014), based on finite volume method, simulated the solitary wave impacting on a horizontal plate with the help of an open source CFD software - OpenFOAM. The influence of the depth of the numerical flume, the plate elevation and the wave amplitude are investigated, the obtained results agreed well with the experiment data. However, there are much fewer FSI analysis about flexible plates. Liu et al. (2002) combined the boundary element method (BEM) and FEM to investigate the hydroelastic response of two-dimensional elastic plate under wave-induced force. Liao and Hu (2013) applied a coupled FDM-FEM method to investigate the interaction between surface flow and thin elastic plate, and obtained good results. Nelli (2017) conducted the experiment of the wave impacting a thin flexible plate, to analyze the reflection and transmission of regular incident water waves. It can draw a conclusion that the amplitude was attenuated due to the green water and wave breaking, and the attenuation is small when the plate is more flexible. Liu et al. (2018) conducts the quasi-static and dynamic tensile tests and plate impact experiments, demonstrates that the strain rate effect varies with the plastic strain and provides a practical advice for ship collision assessments.
