A Fundamental Study on Hydroelastic Behavior of Flexible Floating Structures Supported by Several Aircushions in Regular Waves

Hydroelastic behavior of a flexible floating structure supported by several aircushions arranged in a lattice is discussed in this paper. The modified pressure distribution method, which can consider influence of the aircushion, is applied to a prediction of the hydrodynamic forces.A general pontoon type and four aircushion models are used for the prediction of elastic behavior. From the results, it is possible to reduce the response even if unit aircushion is a small scale. And also the aircushion type is useful to reduce the response of the structure in oblique waves.