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a) Potential-flow wave excitation and motion response of floating bodies with non-vertical hull sides, b) Local hydro-elastic response of marine structures to wave impacts

Academic lead
Mark Kelmanson (School of Mathematics) and Onno Bokhove (School of Mathematics)
Industrial lead
Nuno Fonseca, SINTEF Ocean
Co-supervisor(s)
Mark Walkley (School of Computing)
Project themes
Environmental Flows, Geophysical flows

a) Understanding the motion of Floating Production Storage and Offloading or FPSO units in high sea states is important for safe operations in the oil and gas industry. The challenge in predicting combined water-wave and FPSO interactions lies in the coupling of their dynamics, including the different interfaces, the free water surface, the wetted hull and the intersecting waterline. The aim of the project is to solve this challenge in two dimensions using new numerical technology, to take measurements and to make a comparison with scaled wave-tank measurements. This will lead to outlining and possibly implementing a final strategy for three-dimensional wave-structure dynamics.

b) The prediction of wave impacts on elastic maritime structures such as offshore wind turbine masts is a topic of considerable current interest (see *). The goal of the project is to devise a fully integrated and coupled hydrodynamic and elasto-dynamic numerical model instead of the more common one-way coupling, and to compare numerical simulations with measurements. Prototyping will be commenced in two dimensions before scoping calculations in three dimensions.

* Both of the above projects will build upon a series of successful previous collaborations on the mathematics of maritime engineering, cf. Figs. 1 (experiments) and 2 (theory and numerics).

Fig. 1. Breaking waves impacting on a flexible mast in the Leeds’ wave tank. Courtesy: Tomasz Salwa and Floriane Gidel.

Fig. 2. Numerical simulations of linear waves impacting on a linear elastic beam; free-surface and beam deformations, and velocity potential f, cf. Figure 1 and [1]. Courtesy: Tomasz Salwa.

[1] Salwa, Bokhove, Kelmanson 2017: Variational modelling of wave-structure interactions with an offshore wind-turbine mast. J. Eng. Maths., 107, 61—85.