Proceedings of the Seventeenth

Sixteenth (2007)
(2007)
International
International
Offshore
Offshore
andand
Polar
Polar
Engineering
Engineering
Conference
Conference
Lisbon, Portugal, July 1-6, 2007
Copyright 2007 by The International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers(ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-68-5; ISBN 1-880653-68-0(Set); ISSN 1098-6189 (Set)

Effects of Location and Shape of OWC-Chamber on the Hydroelastic Response of VLFS

Sa Young Hong* and Jo Hyun Kyoung*
*Maritime & Ocean Engineering Research Institute, KORDI
Daejeon, Korea

structure, and so on. In addition, it is possible to apply VLFS to deeper

water where the conventional reclamation is not feasible. To use a
pontoon-type VLFS, however, it needs a breakwater to protect the
VLFS from harsh environment which induces high level of hydroelastic
response. In the deep water, conventional bottom mounted breakwaters
are not viable not only for technical and economical reasons but for
environmental reason which causes block of free flow around the VLFS.
In order to take advantage of environmental friendliness of VLFS,
therefore, it is desirable to use breakwater which does not obstruct the
flow around the structure. For such purposes, various kinds of floatingtype breakwaters have been introduced such as simple block attached to
wall side(Takagi et al., 2000), submerged plate(Takaki et al., 2002,
Watanabe et al., 2003), fixed or floating breakwater with bottom
opening(Hong et al., 2002), OWC breakwater(Maeda et al., 2001),
various shape of hinged structure attached to VLFS with different
stiffness (Kim et al., 2005). It turned out that floating breakwater
attached to the VLFS increases wave drift force dramatically due to
increased reflection of the incident waves. That gives negative effects
on mooring system design. On the other hand, OWC-type breakwater
has been reported that it does not increase drift force but reduces about
50% of wave force(Maeda et al., 2001). There are several parameters to
be considered in the practical design of OWC-type breakwaters such as
size and shape of OWC chamber, orifice size, connecting method
between OWC chamber and VLFS. In previous researches, OWC-type
breakwater is idealized to have a uniform mass or massless chamber
connected to the front of VLFS with uniform stiffness. To devise a
realistic OWC breakwater attached to VLFS, it is necessary to consider
non-uniformity of mass and stiffness near OWC chamber, various
locations and connecting mechanisms of OWC chamber to VLFS,
which can give necessary information to produce optimal performance
of OWC breakwater. Hong and Hong(2007) investigated OWC-type
floating breakwater connected to VLFS with hinge connection. Hong
and Kyoung(2006) showed that VLFS combined with OWC chamber
of which front wall is very thick gives dramatic reduction of overall
motion for long wave.
In the present study, a series of hydroelastic analysis is carried out for a
VLFS with OWC-type breakwater at arbitrary location. Finite element
method combined with mode superposition method is applied in order
to consider the change of mass and stiffness including OWC chamber
in piecewise constant manner for analysis of the hydroelastic response
of VLFS efficiently and modeling connecting mechanism easily.

ABSTRACT
A numerical investigation is made on the effects of location and shape
of front wall of OWC (Oscillating Water Column) chamber on the
hydroelastic response of VLFS. Most of studies on the effects of OWC
chamber on response of VLFS have assumed the location of the OWC
chamber at the front of VLFS. In the present study, an OWC-chamber
is introduced at arbitrary position of VLFS to see the influence of the
location and shape of OWC chamber on the hydroelastic response of
VLFS.
A finite element method is adopted as numerical scheme for fluid
domain. Finite element method combined with mode superposition
method is applied in order to consider change of mass and stiffness of
OWC chamber in piecewise constant manner for analysis of the
hydroelastic response of VLFS efficiently as well as modeling different
shape and material property along the structure easily. Reduction of
hydroelastic response of VLFS is investigated for various locations and
front wall shapes of OWC chamber.

KEY WORDS: OWC-type breakwater; Hydroelasticity; Finite

Element Method; Mode-superposition Method; Pontoon-type VLFS;
Location of OWC chamber

INTRODUCTION
Attractive concept of using VLFS(Very Large Floating Structure) for
utilization of ocean space has been widely adopted over the world and
intensive efforts to develop design and analysis tools have been made
during the last decade. One of main design concerns of VLFS is to
ensure structural integrity as well as operability under harsh wave
environmental conditions. Since the structural stiffness of such a huge
structure is so weak that the deformation of the structure should be
considered both for hydrodynamic wave loads and induced structural
motions. This is the reason why various kinds of hydroelastic analysis
methods have been developed to obtain more efficient and realistic
solutions (Kashiwagi, 1999, Watanabe, 2004).
Well known attractions when VLFS is adopted for ocean space
utilization is the minimization of environmental impacts arisen when
the conventional reclamation method is adopted, such as conservation
of wet land along the coastal line, less blocking of tidal flow around the

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