Application of time domain methods for marine hydrodynamic and hydroelasticity analyses of floating systems

The application of transient three-dimensional numerical code ITU-WAVE is presented for the prediction of hydrodynamic characteristics of floating bodies. The time histories of unsteady motions are directly presented with respect to Impulse Response Functions (IRFs). First-order steady forces of wave-resistance, sinkage force and trim moment are solved as the steady-state limit of surge radiation IRF. The numerical prediction of second-order mean force is presented using near-field method based on the direct pressure integration. The hydrodynamic and structural parts are fully coupled through modal analysis for the solution of hydroelastic analysis. A stiff structure is then studied assuming that contributions of rigid body modes are much bigger than elastic modes. A discrete control of latching is used to increase the bandwidth of the efficiency of Wave Energy Converters (WEC). ITU-WAVE numerical results for different floating bodies show satisfactory agreements compared to analytical, other numerical and experimental results.