Free transverse vibration analysis of an underwater launcher based on fluid-structure interaction

A pneumatic launcher is theoretically investigated to study its natural transverse vibration in water. Considering the mass effect of the sealing cover, the launcher is simplified as a uniform cantilever beam with a top point mass. By introducing the boundary and continuity conditions into the motion equation, the natural frequency equation and the mode shape function are derived. An iterative calculation method for added mass is also presented using the velocity potential function to account for the mass effect of the fluid on the launcher. The first 2 order natural frequencies and mode shapes are discussed in external flow fields and both external and internal flow fields. The results show good agreement with both natural frequencies and mode shapes between the theoretical analysis and the FEM studies. Also, the added mass is found to decrease with the increase of the mode shape orders of the launcher. And because of the larger added mass in both the external and internal flow fields than that in only the external flow field, the corresponding natural frequencies of the former are relatively smaller. © 2014 Harbin Engineering University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.