A Numerical Wave Tank for Nonlinear Waves with Passive Absorption

A numerical wave tank with passive absorption for irregular waves is considered in this paper. Waves with spectralshapes corresponding to that of the Mitsuyasu-Bretschneider type are used as the initial condition at one end of theflume. An absorbing boundary is imposed at the other end of the wave flume to minimize reflection. By use of aLagrangian description for the surface elevation, and finite difference for approximation of the time derivative, the problem is then solved by the boundary element method. The effects of the absorbing boundary are investigated by varyingthe values of the absorption coefficient μ, and studying the time histories of the surface elevations "recorded" on pre-se-lected locations.