Motion and Total Force Distribution for a Floating Marine Structure in Finite-Depth Water

A potential flow approach is used to develop a method and an associated computer program for floating marine structures of general configuration in wave of all water depths with arbitrary heading. It computes the total force distributions and six degrees-of-freedom motion. The hydrodynamic-force equations and derived become identical under certain assumptions to the equations commonly used by the offshore industry, and the two methods are compared in detail. The computed motions of all six degree agree quite well with model-scale and full-scale experimental data for two typical semisubmersible drilling rigs in finite-depth water. Also the presented motion computations are more accurate than a previous work by the second approach. The present computations use experimentally validated or determined values of frequency-dependent hydrodynamic coefficients with the effects of the free surface and both finite and infinite water depths. The present method generates sufficient computation accuracy to use for practical design applications.