Effects of sea-bottom topography on hydroelastic response of a pontoon-type VLFS

Abstract

Influences of sea-bottom topography on the hydroelastic behavior of a Very Large Floating Structures(VLFS) are investigated experimentally and numerically. To calculate the sea-bottom effects more rigorously, finite-element method based on the variational method is used in fluid domain. Floating structure is modeled as a thin plate with uniform stiffness. The hydroelastic responses of pontoon-type VLFS are analyzed by the mode superposition method. To enhance the satisfaction of shear and moment free condition a set of orthogonal function is adopted as the mode function instead of free-free beam mode function. Flat and step-shaped sea-bottoms are considered in the experimental and numerical study. Copyright ？ 2005 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers.