Wave Forces on Partially Submerged Cylinders

Abstract

Morison's equation for wave force is adapted to predict the force exerted by regular waves on a partially submerged horizontal cylinder. In particular, the vertical force equation is modified by introducing a buoyancy term and a varying volume after first discarding the drag term. Some experimental data taken in a 30-cm wide tank are used to calculate a value of the inertial coefficient Cm using a least squares fitting procedure. Although a spread is found in the values of Cm, it is suggested that the theoretical value for a submerged cylinder, Cm=2.0, could be used with some success.