Regular and irregular wave impacts on floating body

Abstract

Fully nonlinear wave–body interactions for a stationary floating structure under regular and irregular waves for different water depths, wave heights and periods are studied in a 2-D numerical wave tank. The tank model is based on Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations and renormalization group k–ε model. The equations are discretized based on the finite volume method. The pressure implicit splitting of operators scheme is employed to treat the pressure–velocity coupling and a compressive interface capturing scheme is used to capture the free surface on mashes of arbitrary topology. The calculated results for regular wave simulation, irregular wave propagation and wave impacts on floating body are compared with the theoretical/experimental data and the numerical results agree well with analytical/experimental solutions. The mean and maximum wave impacts, including rotational moment, on body are obtained. The effects of water depth, wave height and period on forces and moment have been investigated and the calculated results for irregular waves are compared with those induced by regular waves.