Second-order hydroelastic analysis of a floating plate in multidirectional irregular waves

Based on an analysis of second-order hydrodynamic forces induced by coupling of first-order wave potentials, second-order hydroelastic equations are established and solved in the frequency domain. The responses of a very large floating structure in multidirectional irregular waves are studied. The characteristics of the difference and sum frequency coordinates are discussed in detail; peaks can be found at the difference and sum frequencies close to the wet resonant frequencies of each mode. We present and analyze the maximum vertical displacement of different points as well as the time history of the vertical displacements of selected points. The differences of the combined (the summation of the linear and non-linear responses) and linear displacements of the selected points are calculated. Our results demonstrate that non-linear fluid forces influence the total responses of the referenced floating structure.