Radiation and diffraction of water waves by an infinite horizontal structure with a sidewall using SBFEM

A novel semi-analytical and semi-numerical method, the scaled boundary finite element method (SBFEM), is applied to solve radiation and diffraction of waves by an infinite horizontal structure in shallow water with a sidewall. The boundary-value problem is solved by using SBFEM and domain decomposition technique. The nonhomogeneous scaled boundary finite element equation is solved by seeking the special solution and general solution. Only the boundary is spatially discretized with curved surface finite elements, resulting in a reduction of the spatial dimension by one. The solution in the radial direction is analytical, whilst the solution in the circumferential is numerical. The method is verified by comparing the computational results with the analytical results and numerical results of boundary element method. Satisfactory results are obtained with a small number of surface elements, which demonstrates the high efficiency of the method.

► The problem of wave–structure interaction is solved by SBFEM.
► Wave interaction with an infinite horizontal structure near sidewall is dealt with.
► Bank effect is considered for analyzing the hydrodynamic coefficients.
► High efficiency and high accuracy of SBFEM are demonstrated.