Gross and Wave Load on a Large Vertical Cylinder - Theory and Experiment

This paper discusses a study wherein the dynamic effects on a large vertical circular cylinder due to waves were measured experimentally in a wave tank in the form of pressures and forces. Because of the large diameter of the cylinder compared to the wave lengths, appreciable diffraction of the waves from the surface of the cylinder was expected. Expressions of pressures, forces and moments were developed following the classical analysis of Havelock on a fixed obstacle in waves and which includes wave diffraction effects. The viscous effects were neglected in the analysis on the assumption that for a cylinder of this size the inertia force is most predominant. Linear wave theory was applied in the study of the interaction of waves with a bottom-mounted object. The prediction results from this theory compared favorably with the experimentally measured data.