Abstract
In this paper, the characteristics of the impact pressure and force of a trimaran section was studied by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The time domain features of the slamming pressure or force showed a strong correlation with the penetration depth regardless of the specific ways of water entry. The effects of velocity and acceleration on the impact pressure and force were analyzed. It was found that the initial impact of the main hull and the wet-deck slamming were predominantly affected by the entry velocities, whilst the acceleration had almost no effect for initial impact. The impact velocity presented a quadratic relation with slamming pressure/forces, and the relation between acceleration and wet-deck slamming pressure/force was linear. These were consistent with the patterns implied by analytical models such as the Wagner or MLM (Modified Logvinovich model) theories.