A two-dimensional boundary element method with generating absorbing boundary condition for floating bodies of arbitrary shape in the frequency domain

A two-dimensional (2D) boundary element method is developed for the rapid assessment of the hydrodynamic performance of floating structures in waves. The boundary element method is based on potential flow and has panels along all boundaries of the fluid domain – not only along the boundary of the floater – to make the extension to second order feasible. Panels along all boundaries requires the development of generating absorbing boundary conditions for use at radiation boundaries to send incident waves into the domain while absorbing waves originating from the floating body at the same boundary, at the same time. The model is verified by means of conservation of energy of a heaving wave energy converter, and by means of the propagation of second-order waves. The performance in terms of conservation of energy with 12 panels per wave length is good, the generating absorbing boundary condition works according to expectation and the second-order wave propagation corresponds to theory.