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Short-crested wave forces on a rigid segmented vertical cylinder

University of British Columbia

This thesis investigates water particle kinematics and the wave forces exerted on a slender rigid vertical cylinder in regular bidirectional wave fields. The instrumented portion of this cylinder is partitioned into nine independent segments enabling measurement of the vertical profile of hydrodynamic loading both in-line and transverse to the direction of wave propagation. Experiments conducted at the Hydraulics Laboratory of the National Research Council in Ottawa are described and some results are compared with the predictions of a wave force model based on the Morison equation and linear fluid kinematics. The influence of the crossing angle between the two wave components on the forces experienced by the column is determined. These experiments consider short-crested wave behavior in intermediate and deep water resulting from the interaction of two identical regular wave trains crossing at angles of 30, 60 and 90 degrees. The limit corresponding to unidirectional monochromatic waves is also investigated to provide a reference condition for comparison with the short-crested results. Conditions at the location of maximum short-crested wave height are of primary interest, however, forces at locations between the anti-node and node of the flow are also examined. In all, water surface elevations, flow velocities, and wave forces were measured in 24 short-crested and 8 different long-crested wave conditions spanning the range of Keulegan-Carpenter number between 4 and 24. The results of this study confirm the findings of previous researchers that short -crested waves with a certain period travel faster and rise higher before breaking than do their long-crested counterparts, but that in-line wave forces are not necessarily increased. Lift force maxima equal to half the maximum in-line force were measured; these forces can contribute significantly to the magnitude and direction of the total force resultant.

Text

2010-07-20

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/26688

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

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