Pressure Mapping System for Marine Structure Application: An alternate approach with validation

The impact pressure on marine structures due to the breaking waves is a highly localised phenomenon that is still active research. Recently, pressure mapping has been used in hydrodynamic model testing to measure the spatial variation of pressure induced by breaking waves with a very high spatial resolution of 4 measuring points per sq. cm. However, the sensor's response is highly affected by the loading conditions. This paper considers both statics and dynamics loading conditions to obtain the calibration constants. It has been reported that the static loading cannot be used for calibration when the sensor is meant to measure pressure for wave-structure applications, highly influenced by dynamic loadings. One of the objectives of this paper is to find an alternate method of dynamic loading that should be precise and controlled to obtain the calibration, unlike water jets. In order to do so, an alternate approach based on water balloon drops tests are conducted. The obtained calibration constants are compared with the water jets. Finally, this calibration approach is experimentally validated with vertical wall physical model tests based on pressure transducer.