METHOD FOR CALCULATING FORCES PRODUCED BY IRREGULAR WAVES

Abstract

A new method is described and evaluated for calculating wave forces on offshore structures. It is based on an extension of Airy theory for two-dimensional waves and uses a linear filtering technique to calculate wave forces as a function of time for wave profiles of arbitrary shape and length. It is especially useful for evaluating the forces exerted on offshore structures by a sequence of irregular storm waves. The accuracy of the method is checked by comparison with measured hurricane-wave forces.