Investigation of the effect of stiffness distribution and structure shape on hydroelastic responses of very large floating structures

Abstract

This paper investigates the influences of stiffness distribution and structure shape on hydroelastic responses of very large floating structures (VLFS). Direct method is employed as a numerical tool to calculate hydroelastic responses such as displacements and stresses. Higher order boundary element method (HOBEM) is employed for the analysis of fluid flow. Structural stiffness and mass matrices and force vector are obtained by finite element method (FEM) employing Mindlin plate elements. A 1 km-long VLFS with uniform stiffness is considered in numerical example. To investigate the effect of stiffness distribution, modified VLFSs with nonuniform stiffness and mass distributions are analyzed. Discussions on response reduction by stiffening, setting moon pools and hinge linking are also included. Copyright ？ 2005 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers.