Nonlinear hydrodynamics of freely floating symmetric bodies in waves by three-dimensional fully nonlinear potential-flow numerical wave tank

This study estimated the nonlinear hydrodynamic performance of freely floating structures in nonlinear water waves. For this, a three-dimensional, fully nonlinear numerical wave tank (NWT) was developed based on potential theory and the boundary element method (BEM). The fully nonlinear NWT evaluates the hydrodynamic force acting on the instantaneous body position and free-surface elevation based on the mixed Eulerian and Lagrangian (MEL) method and acceleration-potential approach. The instantaneous nonlinear free surface was traced at each time step, and the far-field outgoing wave condition was satisfied by placing an artificial freesurface damping zone. In addition, the least square gradient reconstruction method, thin-plate spline method, and modified inverse distance weighting method were adopted to re-grid the calculation nodes and evaluate the spatial derivatives of the physical quantities robustly. The developed NWT was used to evaluate the first-order and second-order motion RAOs and excitation forces of a freely floating vertical cylinder. The results were compared systematically with previously published results using perturbation theory. Moreover, the heave-topitch Mathieu-instability phenomena on a deep-draft floating cylinder were demonstrated by the fully nonlinear NWT simulations. The results agreed well with the corresponding experimental observations.

Automated summary

The study estimated the nonlinear hydrodynamic performance of freely floating structures in nonlinear water waves using a three-dimensional, fully nonlinear numerical wave tank. Different methods were adopted to handle the nonlinear free surface, calculation nodes, and spatial derivatives of physical quantities. The numerical wave tank simulations effectively demonstrated the motion and excitation forces of a floating cylinder and validated against experimental observations.