Bottom slamming for a Very Large Floating Structure: Uncoupled global and slamming analyses

The bottom slamming of a Very Large Floating Structure (VLFS) has been studied with theoretical and numerical tools. The strategies adopted are: (i) a linear analysis for modeling the global motions of the platform, followed by (ii) a fully nonlinear description for the bottom-slamming occurrence. Model (i) is used to examine the global behavior of a VLFS at model and full scales, and model (ii) is applied to investigate the bottom-slamming features in terms of flow evolution and induced pressure and stresses on the platform bottom. Excitation of hydroelastic coupling and occurrence of air cushion are also discussed together with the challenges connected with scaling effects.