Development of a Test to Simulate Wave Impact on Composite Sandwich Marine Structures

Wave impact is a potentially damaging load case not only for fast ships and racing yachts but also for wave energy devices and signal buoys. This chapter describes the development and analysis of a test designed to simulate the response of composite and sandwich marine structures subjected to wave impact. First a brief overview of previous work on impact of composites and sandwich materials is given, and existing tests to study wave slamming are discussed. The development of a medicine ball test is then described, and examples of results from tests on various sandwich panels are given. Finally, the evolution from a qualitative to a quantitative test is described, FE modelling is discussed and examples of results are given.