Hydrodynamic Interaction of Flexible Structures

Abstract

In order to investigate the nature of hydrodynamic interaction on multiple, flexible structures subjected to earthquake ground motion, a numerical analysis for determining the hydrodynamic forces and the corresponding structural responses on three‐dimensional offshore structures is presented. With the assumption of potential flow, the finite element method is developed to solve the boundary value problem in the fluid domain. If the structures have uniform cross sections in the vertical direction, the problem can be reduced to a two‐dimensional one. Moreover, the principle of symmetry and antisymmetry can also be applied to the problem to reduce the fluid domain such that the computation becomes much more efficient. A computer program is developed to analyze the structural behavior according to the aforementioned approach. From the results of the examples presented, we arrive at the conclusion that hydrodynamic interaction is relevant if the structures are in close proximity. This phenomenon depends on the...