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Advances in Renewable Energies Offshore – Guedes Soares (Ed.)
© 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-58535-5
Wave diffraction by a floating fixed truncated vertical cylinder
based on Boussinesq equations
S.C. Mohapatra, H. Islam & C. Guedes Soares
Centre for Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering (CENTEC), Instituto Superior Técnico,
Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
ABSTRACT: Mathematical modelling of wave diffraction by a floating fixed truncated vertical cylinder
is formulated based on Boussinesq-type equations in the application range of weakly dispersive Boussinesq
model. The nonlinear Boussinesq equations with depth parameters, which indicate the specific elevations
in exterior region are obtained based on an expansion of velocity potentials as a power series in the
dispersive effect. Using Bessel functions in the velocity potentials, the mathematical problem is handled for
second-order wave amplitudes using perturbation technique and structural boundary conditions. To check
the fidelity of the analytical model, the initial results of second-order super-harmonic wave amplitude
around the vertical cylinder are compared with CFD simulations and CFD results are compared against
Experimental Fluid Data (EFD) for normalized wave height. For CFD simulations, the open source CFD
toolkit, OpenFOAM, is used. The initial comparison shows a good level of agreement among analytical,
CFD and EFD models.
Therefore, recently, some researchers are target-
ing the implementation of Boussinesq-type model
to study WECs associated with floating vertical
cylinder.
In the literature, few studies can be found on the
analytical study of nonlinear wave diffraction by a
vertical cylinder based on Boussinesq approach in
shallow water has received limited attention. For
instance, Yu (1987) employed Bessel coordinate
transformation to study the wave forces on mul-
tiple cylinders in shallow water based on cnoidal
and solitary wave theory approach. Basmat & Zie-
gler (1998) obtained the analytical solutions using
Fourier transformation technique based on higher-
order Boussinesq equations of wave diffraction by
a rigid vertical circular cylinder to investigate the
wave loading on the cylinder. Kang et al. (2015)
studied the wave forces and free surface displace-
ment around a fixed floating truncated vertical cyl-
inder based on three-dimensional numerical model
and the results are compared with experimental
and analytical results in deep water.
On the other hand, recent efforts have been
made to formulate and provide some analytical
solutions of the problems associated with wave
interaction with floating structures based on
Boussinesq-type equations. Mohapatra & Guedes
Soares (2015b) studied the wave forces acting on
the floating structure based on linearized Boussin-
esq equations using eigenmode expansion method.
Lannes (2017) provided some analytical solutions
1 INTRODUCTION
Over the decades, there has been considerable
progress on the linear analytical hydrodynamic
models associated with fluid-structure interactions
for the assessment of motions, loads, power pro-
duction, and hence the wave energy sector relies
heavily on the use of these models. On the other
hand, limited work has been done on nonlinear
analytical models associated with wave interaction
with floating structures for the wave load analysis
based on Boussinesq-type equations, and there is
much room for progress.
Boussinesq-type equations allow the use of non-
linear hydrodynamics and can also realise a large
number of irregular sea states needed for valida-
tion, optimization and fatigue predictions. Hence,
study of wave-structure interaction and wave-
induced forces associated with non-linear effect
on floating structures based on analytical models
using Boussinesq equations is of recent interest
due to its wide applicability in the field of ocean
and coastal engineering.
In order to design floating wave energy con-
verters (WECs), accurate prediction of the wave
induced loads on the floating structure is neces-
sary. Especially, the incoming wave height or wave
amplitude considered during design is substantial.
So, the nonlinear wave effects cannot be ignored,
thus, the linear potential theory may not predict
realistic values for wave amplitude and wave forces.