Pressure Measurements Comparison Using Transducers During Vertical Slamming Test

During slamming, the ship that hits water surface may be severely damaged due to high local water impact reaction. Such an event can produce extremely large impulsive pressures in local structure areas followed by submitting the entire hull structures to whipping forces. Slamming events typically have a short duration. This paper reports a series of impact test results and investigates the slamming loads and pressures acting on a square based pyramid. In this study, slamming tests were conducted at constant impact velocity. The three selected rigid pyramid velocities are: 10, 13 and 15 m s−1. Time-histories of pressures, accelerations and slamming loads were measured. Two sensors were used to measure the pressure distribution on the pyramid surface: piezoelectric pressure sensor (PCB) and Tekscan pressure sensor. A sufficient frequency of 100 KHz was used to measure pressure peaks during slamming. Indeed the pressure sensor size and acquisition frequency affect pressure measures especially their maximal values.