Hydrodynamics of Moonpool-Type Floaters: A Theoretical and a CFD Formulation

Anargyros S. Mavrakos, Dimitrios N. Konispoliatis, Dimitrios G. Ntouras, George P. Papadakis and Spyros A. Mavrakos
Additional contact information
Anargyros S. Mavrakos: Laboratory for Floating Structures and Mooring Systems, School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, GR 157-73 Athens, Greece
Dimitrios N. Konispoliatis: Laboratory for Floating Structures and Mooring Systems, School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, GR 157-73 Athens, Greece
Dimitrios G. Ntouras: Laboratory for Naval and Marine Hydrodynamics, School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, GR 157-73 Athens, Greece
George P. Papadakis: Laboratory for Naval and Marine Hydrodynamics, School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, GR 157-73 Athens, Greece
Spyros A. Mavrakos: Laboratory for Floating Structures and Mooring Systems, School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, GR 157-73 Athens, Greece

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-25

Abstract: Moonpool-type floaters were initially proposed for applications such as artificial islands or as protecting barriers around a small area enabling work at the inner surface to be carried out in relatively calm water. In recent years, a growing interest on such structures has been noted, especially in relation to their use as heaving wave energy converters or as oscillating water column (OWC) devices for the extraction of energy from waves. Furthermore, in the offshore marine industry, several types of vessels are frequently constructed with moonpools. The present paper deals with the hydrodynamics of bottomless cylindrical bodies having vertical symmetry axis and floating in a water of finite depth. Two computation methods were implemented and compared: a theoretical approach solving analytically the corresponding diffraction problem around the moonpool floater and a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver, which considers the viscous effects near the sharp edges of the body (vortex shedding) as non-negligible. Two different moonpool-type configurations were examined, and some interesting phenomena were discussed concerning the viscous effects and irregularities caused by the resonance of the confined fluid.

Keywords: moonpool type floaters; viscous effects; computational fluid dynamics; theoretical formulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/2/570/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/2/570/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:2:p:570-:d:724236

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().