Planar forcing of floating ice sheets

The objective of this study is to investigate the plane dynamic response of a floating plate supported by a fluid. The fluid underneath the plate is modeled using two-dimensional incompressible potential flow theory. The fundamental solutions are obtained first. Once the solution for the plate displacement is obtained, the other physical quantities of interest-the temporal and spatial distributions of the slope, moment, shear and even the buoyant force, the inertial force of the fluid and the inertial force of the plate--can be evaluated numerically. Advantageously, using superposition and the fundamental solutions presented in this paper, the solution for various loading cases can be readily obtained. As an application, the dynamic behavior of a forced sub-surface uplift problem is studied. Comparisons are then made with an added mass model. The results reveal that the true hydrodynamic model increases the mass and damping of the plate significantly.