A Study on the Wave Drift Forces Calculation on Two Floating Bodies Based on the Boundary Element Method: Attempt for Improvement of the Constant Panel Method

Abstract

The boundary element method (BEM) which can solve the boundary integral equations is used to calculate the velocity potential on the floating bodies. The equation is discretized by the higher order BEM or the constant panel method. The constant panel method is relatively easy to compute the velocity potential. However the near field method cannot evaluate the wave drift forces and moment accurately, when the velocity potential is computed by the constant panel method. In the article, a new numerical technic of the constant panel method is proposed. Then it is easy to take advantage of the near field method to calculate the wave drift forces and moment, especially considering two floating system. In addition, the results of the fluid forces calculated by new method are compared to the other methods results. At last the hydrodynamic interaction between two floating bodies is assessed in the calculation of the wave exciting forces and the wave drift forces.