Shallow Water Effect on Current Force Acting on a Pontoon-Type Very Large Floating Structure

Abstract

In this paper, two-dimensional Navier-Stokes simulations for a very flat rectangular body in a steady current with Reynolds number of the order of 10^8 were performed, in order to investigate shallow water effect on current force acting on a pontoon-type very large floating structure. The results showed that the total current force consists of frictional drag on the bottom surface, pressure drag due to pressure loss in the region beneath the structure, and the pressure drag due to separation. The shallow water effect on these three drag components can be theoretically estimated by considering fluid velocity acceleration in the region beneath the structure. The current force acting on a floating structure with length of 5000 m was also estimated by the present estimation method.