Flexural-gravity waves induced by uniform flow past a cylinder beneath a finite elastic plate

Journal article, 2026

This study investigates the two-way coupling between flexural-gravity waves (FGWs) and bluff-body wake dynamics for uniform flow past a circular cylinder beneath a finite elastic plate. A remeshing-enabled arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian finite-volume fluid–structure interaction framework resolves the viscous wake, plate deformation, and hydrodynamic loading in the deforming cylinder–plate gap. Unlike prescribed-load or potential-flow-based hydroelastic models, the simulations reveal a closed feedback loop: the cylinder-induced pressure field and vortex shedding deform the plate, while the evolving plate shape modifies the gap, pressure asymmetry, vortex shedding, and forces. The response shows that the submerged cylinder can generate a localized upstream flexural-wave-like deformation and a downstream gravity-wave-like depression, reflecting the combined effects of wake-induced pressure redistribution, hydroelastic restoring forces, and wave propagation. Relative to the rigid-wall counterpart, the elastic plate modifies the cylinder forces by reducing the mean drag, suppressing lift fluctuations and shifting the mean lift through deformation-induced gap variation and pressure redistribution. The parametric results further show that plate extent and cylinder submergence depth control different aspects of the coupled feedback: the downstream plate extent governs the gravity-wave-like branch and the cylinder forces, whereas the submergence depth mainly modulates the effective gap, wall-side vortex shedding, and lift response. These findings demonstrate that submerged-body-induced FGWs beneath a finite elastic cover are governed not only by hydroelastic dispersion but also by viscous wake dynamics, pressure recovery, and deformation-induced gap variation. These results clarify how wake dynamics and hydroelastic deformation jointly govern hydrodynamic loads and wave-induced deformation relevant to under-ice navigation and non-contact icebreaking.