Development of a Computer Program for Three Dimensional Frequency Domain Analysis of Zero Speed First Order Wave Body Interaction

Abstract

Evaluation of motion characteristics of ships and offshore structures at the early stage of design as well as during operation at the site is very important. Strip theory based programs and 3D panel method based programs are the most popular tools used in industry for vessel motion analysis. These programs use different variations of the Green’s function or Rankine sources to formulate the boundary element problem which solves the water wave radiation and diffraction problem in the frequency domain or the time domain.

This study presents the development of a 3D frequency domain Green’s function method in infinite water depth for predicting hydrodynamic coefficients, wave induced forces and motions. The complete theory and its numerical implementation are discussed in detail. An in house application has been developed to verify the numerical implementation and facilitate further development of the program towards higher order methods, inclusion of forward speed effects, finite depth Green function, hydro elasticity, etc. The results were successfully compared and validated with analytical results where available and the industry standard computer program WAMIT v7.04 for simple structures such as floating hemisphere, cylinder and box barge as well as complex structures such as ship, spar and a tension leg platform.