Motion analysis of floating structures by a surface singularity panel method

A singularity panel method based on Green's function integral equation is used to calculate the motion characteristics of ships and offshore structures. The free surface and the body surface are discretized by source-sink and dipole type singularity panels. This reduces the governing integral equation for the velocity potential to a system of algebraic equations which can easily be solved by a computer. The added mass and damping coefficients are computed by appropriate summations along the body surface. The approach is unique since it uses the free space Green's function instead of more complicated Green's function satisfying the free-surface boundary condition. The applications of the method are limited to linear, two-dimensional, incompressible free-surface problems. The extension to three-dimensional geometries is straightforward.