A parametric study of the hydroelastic response of a floating, mat-type runway in regular waves

The linear, level I Green-Naghdi (GN) theory is developed to study the hydroelastic behavior of a rectangular airport or runway whose draft is "small" and which floats in a near-shore area. The theory uses the linear, shallow-water wave equations of the GN type for fluid dynamics and thin-plate theory for the structural dynamics. The governing equations are matched at the juncture boundary and the resulting partial differential equations are solved by the boundary-integral-equation (BIE) method. The method devised here is proven to be very efficient in a parametric study of the hydroelastic response of a mat-type floating runway in regular waves. The main parameter varied in the problem is the stiffness of the mat. The deflections of the mat are calculated for various incoming wave frequencies and heading angles in water of "shallow" depth. The presented results may be used as a guideline to determine the stiffness of a mat-type floating airport at the preliminary design stage.