A Experimental Study on the Hydroelastic Behavior of Large Floating Offshore Structures
A large floating structure is attracting great attention in recent years from the view of ocean space utilization. Its huge scale in the horizontal directions compared with the wavelength and relatively shallow depth make this type of floating structure flexible and its wave-induced motion be characterized by the elastic deformation. In this paper, a boundary integral equation method is proposed to predict the wave-induced dynamic response mat-like floating offshore structure. The structure is modeled as an elastic plate and its elastic deformation is expressed as a superposition of free-vibration modes in air. This makes it straightforward to expand the well-established boundary integral technique for rigid floating bodies to include the hydroelastic effects. In order to validate the theoretical analysis, we compare with the experimental result of reduced model test. Satisfactory agreement is found between theory and experiment.