NONLINEAR FREE SURFACE CONDITION DUE TO SECOND ORDER DIFFRACTION BY A PAIR OF CYLINDERS

An analysis of the non-homogeneous term involved in the free surface condition for second order wave diffraction on a pair of cylinders is presented. In the computations of the nonlinear loads on offshore structures, the most challenging task is the computation of the free surface integral. The main contribution to this integrand is due to the non-homogeneous term present in the free surface condition for second order scattered potential. In this paper, the free surface condition for the second order scattered potential is derived. Under the assumption of large spacing between the two cylinders, waves scattered by one cylinder may be replaced in the vicinity of the other cylinder by equivalent plane waves together with non-planner correction terms. Then solving a complex matrix equation, the first order scattered potential is derived and since the free surface term for second order scattered potential can be expressed in terms of the first order potentials, the free surface term can be obtained using the knowledge of first order potentials only.