Fully nonlinear dynamics of floating solar platform with twin hull by tubular floaters in ocean waves

Abstract

Sustainability in harvesting solar power offshore depends on the survival of their platforms under environmental loads such as ocean waves. Therefore, a framework is established in this study to estimate the dynamics of floating solar platforms under ocean waves experimentally and numerically. Hence the platform is taken twin hull with double circular cylinders which exposed to a broad range of waves in the calibrated physical wave tank. On the other hand, the high order boundary element method and mixed Eulerian-Lagrangian approach are used in the numerical model to solve the fully nonlinear fluid field and the acceleration potential method is employed to approximate the response of the platform implicitly. To validate the framework, numerical and experimental results are compared for a single cylinder under the incident waves. Then, the comparison is extended for a twin hull platform. The effect of nonlinear free surface flow amongst the twin cylinders on the dynamics of the platform is studied parametrically. Afterwards, the performance of the present framework is assessed for a near breaking incident wave and an irregular wave. The stream function theory and flux of superposed wave components are used to emulate the high steep wave and the irregular wave respectively.