NONLINEAR FEM APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF THE HYDROELASTIC BEHAVIOUR OF FLOATING BEAMS

A numerical examination is presented of the response of floating elastic beams to regular and irregular waves. The mathematical approach described is applicable to problems in VLFS hydroelasticity and sea-ice/wave in-teractions. Finite element methods are applied to the 2D time-dependent hydroelastic problem, both within the beam and in the potential flow. The formulation is de-signed to allow interchangeable beam models and, in par-ticular, to include nonlinearity. Comparisons of linear and nonlinear models are shown for moderate wave steep-nesses