Experimental and numerical analysis of the effect of immersion depth on the natural frequencies of a bounded circular plate submerged near the water free surface

Recognition of the dynamical behavior and vibrations of marine structures, submerged in vicinity of the water free surface, is one of the most important issues in design of the marine structures. It is obvious that physical properties of the ambient fluid have some influences on vibrational frequencies of the structures. For the structures that have exposed under the influences of asymmetric environmental conditions, prediction of their dynamical behaviors is more complicated. In this paper the effects of immersion depth on first natural frequency of a bounded circular plate that was placed parallel in vicinity of the water surface, are studied numerically and experimentally. Based on the author’s knowledge, the techniques used for exciting the plate and measurements of natural frequencies are innovations of this research. Numerical solutions are done by using of the ABAQUS software. Comparisons of the numerical and experimental results show a good consistency. The investigations showed by increasing of the immersion depth, so the ratio of the depth to plate diameter reached to a certain value, the natural frequencies were also decreased. After that it remained constant while the immersion depths of plate were increased.