Advances in the three-dimensional hydroelasticity of ships

Abstract

The study of hydroelasticity of ships first gained momentum in the late 1970s with the work of Bishop and Price, who established the two-dimensional (2D) hydroelasticity theory of ships. The concept and basic principle presented in their work to embody the structure and the surrounding fluid as a coupled entirety was further employed and extended in the creation of the general linear three-dimensional (3D) theory of hydroelasticity for an arbitrary shaped flexible marine structure travelling with a forward speed in a seaway in the middle of 1980s (Wu, 1984; Price and Wu, 1985a; Bishop et al., 1986). Since then, great progress has been achieved in the development and application of 3D hydroelasticity theories. These include the more rigorous methods of frequency-domain linear analysis accounting for the forward speed effect and the steady flow effect, the time-domain linear 3D theory, the non-linear 3D theory and the numerical methods for a floating structure travelling in rough seas with large motions, experimental techniques of 3D flexible ship models, the hydroelasticity-based design and safety assessment, etc. This paper presents an overview of these developments and achievements of linear and non-linear 3D hydroelasticity theories of ships, and the corresponding numerical and experimental techniques.