• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.65-73
• /
• 1997

The floating body discussed in this study is a 2-D rectangular floating unit supported by four vertical piles at its corners. Structures of this type are frequently seen as floating piers for the crafts in a small harbour. The movement in some modes of motion of such a flating body is fully or partially restrincted by the piles. The authors(Kim et al. 1994) carried out a series of model tests on its wave control function, its motion and the loads on piles. The experimental results showed that a certain degree of intial constriction force which clamps the floating unit in the horizontal direction can effectively reduce the body motion and wave energy without increasing mooring forces. This may be due to the friction forces occuring between the piles and the rollers installed in the mooring equipments on the floating unit. In this paper, we develop a numerical model for the prediction of wave transformation and floating body motions, where the friction force is idealized as the Coulomb friction and linearized into a damping force using the equivalent damping cofficient. This linearization is verified by comparing the results of motions between the linear and nonlinear analysis of the ezuations of motion. We further compare the caculation results by the linear model with the experimental results and discuss the effect of the friction force or the constriction force on body motions and wave energy dissipation.