Study on Static Stiffness of Flexible Inflatable Pontoon of Wave-Adaptive Rescue Vessel

The mechanical properties of the flexible inflatable pontoon used in the wave-adaptive rescue vessel were analyzed. A geometric compression model of the pontoon was established to investigate its quasi-static behavior. By establishing a mathematical relationship between the vertical compression of the pontoon, internal pressure and vertical force, the vertical static stiffness of the flexible inflatable pontoon was computed using Matlab. To verify the model solution, an equal-scale test system was established and quasi-static experiments were conducted, which exhibited excellent agreement between the test results and model predictions, with a maximum absolute error of 84.278N and a maximum relative error of 10.5%.