Impact of inflated structures on a liquid free surface.

International audienceThere are many situations where inflated structures may hit violently a liquid free surface. One of them occurs during sea-landing of helicopters. As a matter of fact helicopters are equipped with inflated floaters. Those floaters are made of impermeable tissues which are almost inextensible and their flexural rigidity is small. These mechanical characteristics are difficult to reproduce at model scales, that is why we found more conventional inflated balloons like space hopper. Experiments have been carried out in the flume of Ecole Centrale Marseille. Only qualitative measurements have been performed. High speed camera provided the main features of the phenomenona. This abtract sums up this experimental campaign and the first attempts done in the numerical modellings thus yielding some comparisons. It is shown that simple linearized models- both structural and hydrodynamic models - can reproduce the early stage of penetration when impact occurs