NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF WAVE-INDUCED LOAD EFFECTS ON A SUBMERGED BODY NEAR THE SURFACE

Marine structures are subjected to wave forces whether they are stationary or moving. Such wave forces play a significant role in the design and operation of marine structures. The aim of this study is to understand and predict the unsteady hydrodynamic loads experienced by a submerged body near the surface. Both numerical and experimental studies were conducted. For the experimental work, a newly constructed wave maker inside a tow tank was utilized while a computational fluid dynamics model was developed for the numerical study. Both experimental and numerical studies can complement each other. First, the computational model was validated against experimental wave data so as to understand what parameters in numerical modeling influence the reliability of the numerical results. The second aim was to understand the force and moment that a submerged body would experience for different wave lengths.