This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. based on a fully nonlinear potential theory, which was recently developed by the authors ([1], [2]), to deal with the fully nonlinear interaction between steep waves and 2D floating bodies. In the QALE-FEM method, complex unstructured mesh is generated only once at the beginning of calculation and is moved to conform to the motion of boundaries at other time steps, avoiding the necessity of high cost remeshing. In order to tackle challenges associated with floating bodies, several new numerical techniques are developed in this paper. These include the technique for moving mesh near and on body surfaces, the scheme for estimating the velocities and accelerations of bodies as well as the forces on them, the method for evaluating the fluid velocity on the surface of bodies and the technique for shortening the transient period. Using the developed techniques and methods, various cases associated with the nonlinear interaction between waves and floating bodies are numerically simulated. Permanent repository linkFor some cases, the numerical results are compared with experimental data available in the public domain and good agreement is achieved.

The 'New Year Wave' was recorded at the Draupner platform in the North Sea and is a rare high-quality measurement of a 'freak' or 'rogue' wave. The wave has been the subject of much interest and numerous studies. Despite this, the event has still not been satisfactorily explained. One piece of information that was not directly measured at the platform, but which is vital to understanding the nonlinear dynamics is the wave's directional spreading. This paper investigates the directionality of the Draupner wave and concludes it might have resulted from two wave-groups crossing, whose mean wave directions were separated by about 90• or more. This result has been deduced from a set-up of the low-frequency second-order difference waves under the giant wave, which can be explained only if two wave systems are propagating at such an angle. To check whether second-order theory is satisfactory for such a highly nonlinear event, we have run numerical simulations using a fully nonlinear potential flow solver, which confirm the conclusion deduced from the second-order theory. This is backed up by a hindcast from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts that shows swell waves propagating at approximately 80• to the wind sea. Other evidence that supports our conclusion are the measured forces on the structure, the magnitude of the second-order sum waves and some other instances of freak waves occurring in crossing sea states.

This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. applied to 2D floating bodies), the complex unstructured mesh is generated only once at the beginning of calculation and is moved to conform to the motion of boundaries at other time steps by using a robust spring analogy method specially suggested for this kind of problems, avoiding the necessity of high cost remeshing. Permanent repository linkIn order to tackle challenges associated with 3D floating bodies, several new numerical techniques are developed in this paper. These include the technique for moving the mesh near body surfaces, the scheme for calculating velocity on 3D body surfaces and the ISITIMFB-M (Iterative Semi-Implicit Time IntegrationMethod for Floating Bodies -Modified) procedure that is more efficient for dealing with the full coupling between waves and bodies. Using the newly developed techniques and methods, various cases for 3Dfloating bodies with motions of up to 6 degrees of freedom (DoFs) are simulated. These include a SPAR platform, a barge-type floating body and one or two Wigley Hulls in head seas or in oblique waves. For some selected cases, the numerical results are compared with experimental data available in the public domain and satisfactory agreements are achieved. Many results presented in this paper have not been found elsewhere to the best knowledge of the authors.

This is the submitted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link AbstractInteraction between violent water waves and structures is of a major concern and one of the important issues that has not been well understood in marine engineering. This paper will present first attempt to extend the Meshless Local Petrov Galerkin method with Rankine source solution (MLPG_R) for studying such interaction, which solves the Navier-stokes equations for water waves and the elastic vibration equations for structures under wave impact. The MLPG_R method has been applied successfully to modeling various violent water waves and their interaction with rigid structures in our previous publications. To make the method robust for modeling wave elastic-structure interaction (hydroelasticity) problems concerned here, a near-strongly coupled and partitioned procedure is proposed to deal with coupling between violent waves and dynamics of structures. In addition, a novel approach is adopted to estimate pressure gradient when updating velocities and positions of fluid particles, leading to a relatively smoother pressure time history that is crucial for success in simulating problems about wavestructure interaction. The developed method is used to model several cases, covering a range from small wave to violent waves. Numerical results for them are compared with those obtained from other methods and from experiments in literature. Reasonable good agreement between them is achieved.

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