OMAE2003-37035 A NUMERICAL STUDY ON HYDRODYNAMIC INTERACTIONS BETWEEN LARGE NUMBERS OF MULTIPLE FLOATING BODIES

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the hydrodynamic interactions between large numbers of multiple bodies floating in each other's close vicinity. The physical aspect of hydrodynamic interaction is rather complicated and numerically sound scheme is highly recommended to study this complex phenomenon. In the present study, the 3D sink-source method has been adopted to determine the hydrodynamic forces by taking into account the effect of hydrodynamic interactions among the different floating bodies, and the coupled equations of motions are solved directly. The validation of the computer code developed for this purpose has been justified by comparing the present results with that of the published ones for simple geometrical shaped floating bodies. The numerical computations have been carried out for different numbers of various freely floating multi-body systems and the hydrodynamic interactions between the floating bodies have been studied by calculating the hydrodynamic forces, first order wave exciting forces and motion responses. Finally some conclusions have been drawn on the basis of the present analysis