Experimental study of high speed plate ditching

In the present paper experimental results of the water entry of a flat plate with a high horizontal speed are presented. The activity is part of an extensive study, still ongoing, aimed at achieving a deeper comprehension of the physical phenomena involved in the aircraft ditching problem. Measurements are conducted in terms of velocity, acceleration, pressures, strains and total forces acting on the plate. In order to avoid any misleading effect due to the scaling, experiments are carried out at quasi-full scale velocity. This required the construction of a new experimental facility at INSEAN-CNR. In this work an analysis of the data of two different values of the pitch angle of the plate is conducted along with an estimate of the test-to-test dispersion. Furthermore, the effect of entrained air is discussed. 1