Comparison of hydrodynamic loading models for vertical cylinders in nonlinear waves

This paper introduces a comparison study between various hydrodynamic loading models in highly nonlinear waves and discusses its first phase comparing Morison equation and Rainey corrections on a fixed cylinder in regular steep waves. In this study both of these two models showed similar results when compared against experimental data. Morison equation is found to capture the amplitude of the loading sufficiently well. However, neither model was able to capture higher-order loading components which are apparent in very steep waves and are associated with ringing. The main conclusion of this work is the identification of the need of a more appropriate loading model. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.