The Numerical Modeling of Coupled Motions of a Moored Floating Body in Waves

Nonlinear interactions between water waves and a moored floating body are investigated using the virtual boundary force (VBF) method. The paper first introduces an in-house three-dimensional viscous incompressible flow model (NEWTANK), which is used to simulate wave-floating structure interaction by using the VBF method. Then the coupling procedure between the mooring line model and the floater model is described. Some validation cases of the developed model, including the motions of a free-floating box in two different water waves, are presented. The present numerical results will be compared with the available experimental data and other numerical results from the published literature. After that, the validity of the mooring line in the numerical model is simulated by simulating the motions of a floating box in still water. Finally, the verified model is applied to analyze the wave-induced motions of a catenary moored floating structure, investigating the motion responses and mooring forces responses. The numerical results agree well with the experimental measurements on the whole. This indicates that the present numerical model can correctly capture the main features of the wave-moored floating structure interaction