Hydroelastic Behavior of Air-Supported Flexible Floating Structures

A pontoon type very large floating structure has elastic deformations in ocean waves. The deformation is larger than that of a semi-submergible type one. Thus, a pontoon type one will be installed to tranquil shallow water field enclosed by breakwaters. Moreover, a semi-submergible one will be applicable to development at offshore field. The authors has developed a pontoon type VLFS with an OWC (oscillating water column) type wave energy absorption system. This can be install to offshore field being deep water relatively. Such VLFS can reduce not only the elastic deformation but also the wave drifting forces. However, it is very difficult to reduce the wave drifting forces effectively because an effect of the reduction depends on the wave energy absorption. Therefore, the authors propose an air supported type VLFS. This idea has been already proposed. However, it wasn’t handled a flexible structure. Such an air-supported structure makes to transmit many waves. Therefore, the wave drifting forces may not increase. In addition, the elastic deformation may decrease because pressure distribution due to the incident waves becomes constant at the bottom of the structure, i.e. the pressure is constant in a same air chamber. We develop the program code for the analysis of the hydrodynamic forces on the VLFS with the air cushion. The potential flow theory is applied and the pressure distribution method is used to the analysis of the wave pressures. The zero-draft is assumed in this method. The pressure and volume change of the air cushion are linearized. In this paper, basic characteristics of the elastic deformations of the air-supported flexible floating structures are investigated. We confirm the effectiveness, and discuss behaviors of the water waves in air chamber areas.