Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Hydrodynamic Interactions of Two VLFS Modules Deployed in Tandem

Abstract

This paper numerically and experimentally investigates the hydrodynamic interaction between two semi-submersible type VLFS modules in the frequency domain. Model tests were conducted to investigate the relationship between interactions and wave headings. Numerical studies were performed by solving the radiation-diffraction problem and were validated against the experimental results. Motion Response Amplitude Operators (RAOs) were obtained from numerical and experimental studies. The dependency of the hydrodynamic interaction effect on wave headings is clarified. The influence of different wave periods on the motion responses of two-module VLFS and wave elevations in the gap is studied. The results indicate that the hydrodynamic interactions of the two modules are directly related to the wave headings and the periods of the incident wave. The shielding effect plays an important role in short wave, and the influence decreases with the increase of the incident wavelength. The numerical results based on the diffraction-radiation code can give a relatively good estimation to the responses in short wave while for long wave, it would over-predict the response.