A three-dimensional modeling of multidirectional random wave diffraction by rectangular submarine pits

A three-dimensional modeling of multidirectional random-wave diffraction by a group of rectangular submarine pits is presented in this paper. The fluid domain is divided into N interior regions representing the pit area and an overall exterior region separated by the imaginary pit boundaries. In the interior region, the analytical expressions of the Fourier series expansion for velocity potentials in the pit regions have been derived with the unknown coefficients determined from a series of Green's function based boundary integral equations. The boundary integral approach has also been applied to obtain the velocity potential and free-surface elevation in the exterior region. The Pierson-Moskowitz (P-M) frequency spectrum was selected for the random wave simulation using the superposition of solutions of a finite number of decomposed wave components. Numerical results for the cases of regular waves and random waves are presented to examine the influences of the pit geometry and incident wave condition on the overall wave field. The general diffraction pattern of alternate bands of increase and decrease of relative wave height in front of the pit system can be observed. It is found that, in the shadow region, the relative wave height is reduced. As the number of pit increases, the effectiveness of reducing the relative wave height behind the multiple-pit system increases. However, the relative wave height within the pit area and in front of the leading pit shows increasing trend. It is noticed that under the random-wave condition, the level of increase and decrease of the relative wave height due to the existence of submarine pits is less pronounced than that observed from results in regular-wave condition. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.