Hydroelastic response of a barge to impulsive and non-impulsive wave loads

Global hydroelastic for ship-type bodies is presented and validated both in frequency and time domain. Since we are interested in the global response, the structural part of the body is modelled by the so called non-uniform Timoshenko beam model using the finite element method, while the hydrodynamic part is modelled by the classical 3D Boundary Integral Equation (BIE) technique. The coupling is performed using the modal approach, which means that the final body response (motions/deformations) is decomposed into a series of the structural dry modes. An additional hydodynamic boundary value problem for each mode is created and soloved by 3D BIE method. The numerical is validated through comparisons with data from especially dedicated tests on an elastic barge. The barge was modelled with 12 pontoons connected with two elastic plates.