Two-Dimensional Numerical Analysis of Mean Wave Drift Loads on Two Fixed Boxes

Abstract Wave drift forces on two barges in side-by-side arrangement are of engineering significance for control of the distance between the vessels. Hence the influence of resonant behaviors between the two barges on drift forces is worthy to investigating. In this paper, a two-dimensional numerical model is developed to evaluate the time-averaged drift forces on two floating bodies. The near-field and far-field methods have been implemented in an in-house program code for computations. First, numerical validations were conducted against published data in literatures. Then, the influence of the gap width and edge shapes of two fixed floating boxes were investigated numerically. It is found that the total mean surge drift force in wave direction was substantially reduced by the piston mode resonance in the gap, whereas considerable drift forces were observed on two respective boxes in opposite directions. Further examinations indicate that the effect of resonant wave behaviors on drift force is dependent on viscous damping of gap resonance.