Numerical Simulation Of Wave Reflection For A Pontoon-type Breakwater In Deep Water

With the development of the offshore industry toward deep water, the floating breakwater has been applied to the offshore industry. The floating breakwater is complaint to varying enviroment. Compared to the fixed breakwater, the floating breakwater is with a more simple geometry and with a low cost, and it suggeats that it is more applicable to be used in deep water.In the design progress of the floating breakwater, the emphasis should be put on the investigation of the interaction between waves and the structure. When considering the interaction between gravity waves and floating structures, the density of the fluid is considered to be invariable. The typical dimension of the floating breakwater is usually large, therefore the viscous effect can be neglected. When the fluid is invariable and the viscous effect is nenglected, the interaction between waves and the floating breakwater can be investigated in the frame of potential flow theory. After obtaining the conditions satisfied on the boundary, the velocity potential in the fluid domian can be determined by solving the boundary value problem.When studying on the hydrodynamics of the flaoting breakwater, one important issue is the wave reflection effect. When the reflection effect is weak, the transmission effect is strong, and the wave elevation is obvious in the domain shielded by the breakwater.In contrast, when the reflection effect is strong, this downstream area can be well shielded. In the present study, the wave elevation around a flaoting breakweater is simulated by using hydrodynamic analysis program ANSYS-AQWA. The wave elevation is simulated for different combinations of the wave conditions and structural geometries. From the numerical results it can be seen that the wave reflection is close related to the incident wave length, while the wave depth, the draft of the structure and wave heading has relatively weak effect on the wave reflection.