Finite-element method for the hydroelastic response of very large floating structure in water of variable depth

Abstract

Finite element method is applied to investigate the influence of varying sea-bottom topography on the hydroelastic response of the Very Large Floating Structures(VLFS). A floating structure is modeled as a thin plate with uniform stiffness. The hydroelastic responses of a pontoon-type VLFS are analyzed by the mode superposition method. To enhance the satisfaction of free edge condition a set of orthogonal function is adopted as the mode function instead of well-known free-free beam mode. An influence on the hydroelastic response by the sea-bottom is observed in the numerical computations and the experimental measurements. Copyright ？ 2005 by ASME.