Abstract
This paper presents the method of numerical analysis concerned with the hydropdynamic forces and moments of the floating bodies exerted by waves. The analytic methods of hydrodynamic wave forces and moments for large volume structures are generally classified into four categories ; the strip method, the boundary element method, the finite element method, and the potential matching method. In the case of the comparatively large structures, diffraction theory can be applied. However, there are no application limits of diffraction theory which have been known concerning with the analytic method of the rectangular structures. In this paper, the two-dimensional B.E.M. is treated for a moored small rectangular structure in order to evaluate applicability of diffraction theory. Numerical calculation is carried out for the structure. The results are compared with some other ones for verification. The result shows that diffraction theory is applicable to structures smaller than 0.15 in the ratio of the representative structure length d to wave length L for rectangular ones.