Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Water Entry Of A Sphere In A Jet, Nathan B. Spiers, Jesse Belden, Zhao Pan, Sean Holekamp, George Badlissi, Matthew Jones, Tadd T. Truscott

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

The forces on an object impacting the water are extreme in the early moments of water entry and can cause structural damage to biological and man-made bodies alike. These early-time forces arise primarily from added mass, peaking when the submergence is much less than one body length. We experimentally investigate a means of reducing impact forces on a rigid sphere by placing the sphere inside a jet of water so that the jet strikes the quiescent water surface prior to entry of the sphere into the pool. The water jet accelerates the pool liquid and forms a cavity into which …