Reconstructed Kinematics and Hydrodynamic Loading Using Spray Root Propagation in Wedge Water Entry

Wedge water entry studies are often performed by Naval Architects to estimate hydrodynamic pressure loads on small craft operating in waves. There are a number of theoretical formulations that have been developed in an effort to simplify the process of estimating design loads for vessel design. The work presented in this paper is the first step toward using a theoretically-based tool to reconstruct hydrodynamic pressures by taking spray root position measurements. This paper shows the validity of this method using a case study of a rigid wedge drop experiment. Future components of this work will further develop this tool to be used for highly-flexible structures and also in-situ pressure measurements at sea. The results of this paper show that the Wagner reconstruction method predicts the residual hydrodynamic pressure due to the fact that the theory considers the effects of acceleration. Meanwhile, the Armand & Cointe reconstruction method shows that the peak pressure magnitude and location can be reasonably predicted.