Finite water depth effect on wave-body problems solved by Rankine source method

Finite water depth effect for wave-body problems are studied by continuous Rankine source method and non- desingularized technique. Free surface and seabed surface profiles are represented by continuous panels rather than a discretization by isolated points. These panels are positioned exactly on the fluid boundary surfaces and therefore no desingularization technique is required. Space increment method is applied for both free surface source and seabed source arrangements to reduce computational cost and improve numerical efficiency. Fourth order Runge-Kutta iteration scheme is adopted on the free surface updating at every time step. The finite water depth effect is studied quantitatively for a series of cylinders with different B/T ratios. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed model are validated by comparison with published numerical results and experimental data. Numerical results show that hydrodynamic coefficients vary for cylinder bodies with different ratios of B/T. For certain set of B/T ratios the effect of finite water depth increases quickly with the increase of motion frequency and becomes stable when frequency is relatively large. It also shows that water depths have larger hydrodynamic effects on cylinder with larger breadth to draft ratios. Both the heave added mass and damping coefficients increase across the frequency range with the water depths decrease for forced heave motion. The water depths have smaller effects on sway motion response than on heave motion response.