Global and Slam Load Model Testing to Support Developing HSMV Operations in Severe Sea Conditions

To satisfy the development requirements of commercial and military HSMVs in severe sea state conditions, model testing to validate global and slam loadings is required. Given the complexity of HSMV unsteady hydrodynamics, model testing is an essential basis for design. An elastic segmented model of a wave-piercing catamaran has been constructed to obtain experimental values of global and slamming loads. Strain gauges are fitted to enable the measurement of the unsteady vertical bending moments. A wave-piercing catamaran must sustain slamming loads on the wet deck, centre bow and bow archway and so a separate centre bow segment enables the slamming loads to be directly measured. The model is found to give good simulation of the slam load impulse and the energy inpul to the Whipping mode. Application of the results of this work in INCAT98m and 112m designs has produced vessels which have withstood very severe sea conditions without damage.