Unsteady Behavior of an Elastic Beam Floating on the Surface of an Infinitely Deep Fluid

The effect of initial disturbances and unsteady external loading on an elastic beam of finite length which floats freely on the surface of an ideal incompressible fluid is studied in a linear treatment. The fluid flow is considered potential. The beam deflection is sought in the form of an expansion in the eigenfunctions of beam vibrations in vacuum with time-dependent amplitudes. The problem reduces to solving an infinite system of integrodifferential equations for unknown amplitudes. The memory functions entering this system are determined by solving the radiation problem. The beam behavior is studied for various loads with and without allowance for the weight of the fluid. The effect of fluid depth on beam deformation was determined by comparing with the previously obtained solutions of the unsteady problem for a beam floating in shallow water. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 47, No. 1, pp. 85–94, January–February, 2006.