Full scale analysis of the response of an elastic ship panel excited by turbulent boundary layers

Due to the high computational cost associated to the numerical evaluation of wall pressure fluctuations at high Reynolds number and to the economical cost and technical difficulties related to full scale measurements, it is not easy to obtain pressure spectra representative of real conditions. In this context, the identification of the most appropriate scaling laws for the power spectral densities of the wall-pressure fields as well as the development of theoretical models for its cross-spectral density representation can provide a chance to solve this specific problem. Moreover, it is important to point out that the presence of the free water surface can produce significant pressure gradients and that, due to the relatively low velocity of marine vehicles, the subconvective components of the pressure field dominate the structure-fluid coupling. In the last few years, several experimental campaigns have been performed on different ship models with the aim of developing a predictive procedure for the evaluation of the radiated noise on board. Some of the considerations made and the results achieved in the case of small pressure gradients are described herein.