SUMMARY

The present paper deals with the water entry of a flat plate with a high horizontal speed. The activity is motivated by the need of achieving a better comprehension and more reliable simulation tools for the aircraft ditching phase. This first part of the study is focused to the ditching of a flat, rigid, plate. The problem is analyzed both numerically and experimentally. Numerically, the problem is studied in two dimensions and the self-similar solution is derived within the potential flow approximation of an ideal fluid. The problem is also addressed experimentally with the aim of building a dataset to be used for validation of computational tools. Due to the difficulties in scaling all the relevant physical parameters, experiments are performed at (almost) full scale velocity, with vertical component of 1.5 m/s and horizontal velocity in the range 30 to 50 m/s. The experimental campaign is starting soon and results will be shown at the Workshop. Here the experimental setup and the instrumentation adopted are presented. Numerical results are reported in terms of pressure distributions and free surface shape. The dependence of the pressure peak on the horizontal/vertical velocity components and on the plate inclination over the free surface is briefly discussed. 1