Hydroelastic responses and drift forces of a very-long floating structure equipped with a pin-connected oscillating-water-column breakwater system

Abstract

The hydroelastic responses of a very-long floating structure (VLFS) in waves connected to a floating oscillating-water-column (OWC) breakwater system by a pin are analyzed by making use of the modal expansion method in two dimensions. The Bernoulli-Euler beam equation for the VLFS is coupled with the equations of motions of the breakwater taking account of the geometric and dynamic boundary conditions at the pin. The Legendre polynomials are employed as admissible functions representing the assumed modes of the VLFS with pinned-free-boundary conditions. It has been shown numerically that the deflections, bending moments and shear forces of the VLFS in waves can be reduced significantly by a pin-connected OWC breakwater. The time-mean horizontal drift forces of the VLFS equipped with the breakwater calculated by the near-field method are also presented. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.