A boundary element method for the interaction of free-surface waves with a very large floating flexible platform

In this paper a derivation is given of an integro-differential equation for the determination of the deflection of a large floating flexible platform, excited by waves. The formulation is presented for the general three-dimensional case where also a current may be present. For the two-dimensional case (1-D platform) a solution method with orthogonal function expansions turns out to be nonconvergent and therefore we have chosen to use a finite-difference method to tackle the fourth-order derivatives. This method seems to be efficient and may be extended to the general three-dimensional case. In this paper, we present 2-D results only. For the zero current situation the amplitude of the deflection of the platform together with the reflection and transmission coefficients are shown. Furthermore, for several values of the wavelength, the influence of the current is studied. The analysis for the response of a 2-D platform to a moving pressure point is then given. (C) 2000 Academic Press.