The present work has been performed in the context of the European H2020 project increased SAfety and Robust certification for ditching of Aircrafts and Helicopters (SARAH) dedicated to improving the safety during aircraft ditching, together with a better understanding of the physics involved during those crucial events. Both numerical and experimental aspects are explored during this project. The present study focuses on the application of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method to the simulation of helicopter ditching, as this method has proved to be particularly adapted to free surface impact cases. Simulations are performed for three different impact configurations, for which the numerical solutions are compared with the experimental results (forces and kinematics) obtained at the wave basin of Ecole Centrale Nantes on a mock-up shape provided by Airbus Helicopters. Elements of sensitivity analysis are also provided when needed, to assess the role of some parameters involved in the helicopter behavior and the fluid pressure forces exerted during the impact.

The feasibility and accuracy of large eddy simulation is investigated for the case of three-dimensional unsteady flows past an elastically mounted cylinder at moderate Reynolds number. Although these flow problems are unconfined, complex wake flow patterns may be observed depending on the elastic properties of the structure. An iterative procedure is used to solve the structural dynamic equation to be coupled with the Navier-Stokes system formulated in a pseudo-Eulerian way. A moving mesh method is involved to deform the computational domain according to the motion of the fluid structure interface. Numerical simulations of vortex-induced vibrations are performed for a freely vibrating cylinder at Reynolds number 3900 in the subcritical regime under two low mass-damping conditions. A detailed physical analysis is provided for a wide range of reduced velocities, and the typical three-branch response of the amplitude behavior usually reported in the experiments is exhibited and reproduced by numerical simulation.

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The present work focusses on the numerical study of Vortex-Induced Vibrations (VIV) of an elastically mounted cylinder in a cross flow at moderate Reynolds numbers. Low mass-damping experimental studies show that the dynamic behavior of the cylinder exhibits a three-branch response model, depending on the range of the reduced velocity. However, few numerical simulations deal with accurate computations of the VIV amplitudes at the lock-in upper branch of the bifurcation diagram. In this work, the dynamic response of the cylinder is investigated by means of three-dimensional Large Eddy Simulation (LES). An Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian framework is employed to account for fluid solid interface boundary motion and grid deformation. Numerous numerical simulations are performed at a Reynolds number of 3900 for both no damping and low-mass damping ratio and various reduced velocities. A detailed physical analysis is conducted to show how the present methodology is able to capture the different VIV responses.