Integrated hydrostatic and hydrodynamic analysis of flexible floating structures

Abstract

This study presents an effective numerical solution procedure to integrate hydrostatic and hydrodynamic analyses for flexible floating structures. Unlike conventional analyses, a single integrated mesh model is adopted to seamlessly perform both analyses. A complete integrated formulation is derived. A floating structure is modeled using the finite element method and the external fluid is modeled using the boundary element method. An integrated mesh model is used for both hydrostatic and hydrodynamic analyses, in which a waterline matching mesh is unnecessary. After hydrostatic analysis, hydroelastic analysis including rigid body hydrodynamic analysis can be performed without remeshing, even when various static loading cases are considered. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through several numerical examples.