A Time-Domain Method for Hydroelastic Analysis of Floating Bridges in Inhomogeneous Waves

Based on the three dimensional potential theory and finite element method (FEM), this paper presented a method for time-domain hydroelastic analysis of a floating bridge in inhomogeneous waves. A floating bridge in both regular and irregular waves, is taken as a numerical example. This method is firstly validated by the comparisons of the results between frequency domain method and presented time domain method under regular wave condition. Then the hydroeleastic responses of the floating bridge in waves with spatially varying significant wave height/peak period are presented, with the purpose to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method. The primary results at this stage indicate that the inhomogeneity of the waves might affect the structure dynamic responses of the floating bridge in waves.