Modeling a solitary wave interaction with a fixed floating body using an integrated analytical-numerical approach

This paper presents the development of an integrated analytical-numerical model to simulate a solitary wave propagating past a fixed and partially immersed body. The velocity potentials of the inner fluid region beneath the structure are determined analytically with unknown coefficients evaluated from a system of newly formulated matching equations with the uses of continuous velocity and velocity potential as well as the orthogonal properties of the eigenfunctions. For the outer region, the propagation of an incident solitary wave and its subsequent wave reflection and transmission after the wave-body interaction are modeled by solving the generalized Boussinesq (gB) equations. Time variations of the wave profiles and hydrodynamic forces for various wave and structural conditions are computed. A series of experimental measurements of wave elevations were carried out for verification of the model performance. The wave elevations obtained from the model simulations are found to agree closely with the measured data. The parametric studies were performed to examine the effects of wave amplitude, structural submergence, and structural width on the transmitted and reflected waves. An increase of structural submergence results in a decrease of the transmitted wave amplitude. Also, with an increase in structural width, the transmitted wave amplitude decreases.