Water Wave Pressure on Horizontal Plate

Simple rules are developed to estimate the maximum uplift pressures induced on the underside of a flat plate by various types of incident waves. Theoretical prediction techniques are provided for both the slow-rise pressure component and the fast-rise pressure component (impact) for different incident waves: standing waves, regular progressive waves, and dispersive waves, all in constant water depth. Laboratory experiments were conducted in a dispersive wave basin partially to check the validity of prediction techniques and partially to provide additional information so that the prediction techniques can be extended empirically to cover the more complicated but more practical situation of a plate in shoaling water. The fast-rise pressure should be of engineering concern not only because the magnitude of its peak is enormous but also because the magnitude of the corresponding impulse is significant. The slow-rise pressure component was found to range from one to two times the hydrostatic pressure.