This work leverages Lagrangian smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to explore the structural and hydrodynamic response of floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT) subject to impulsive breaking waves. The SPH formulation was first validated against breaking wave impact on a model tension leg platform (TLP) which demonstrated good consistency with experimental results. Following validation, wave focusing was utilized to generate both breaking and nonbreaking extreme waves impacting a moored semi-submersible FOWT at full scale. Impulsive forces and accelerations resulting from the plunging breaker were observed to exceed that of nonbreaking waves by up to 70 % and 230 %, respectively, and were highly sensitive to the wave impingement location relative to the FOWT.

Relevant Publications

Wang, S., Chuang, W.-L. (2025). Dynamic analysis of breaking wave impact on a floating offshore wind turbine via smoothed particle hydrodynamics. Marine Structures, 100

To facilitate the implementation of floating cities at the community scale, it is imperative that innovative tools of communication are developed for the general public. For this purpose, we leverage head-mounted display (HMD)-based virtual reality (VR) to provide users with a visually immersive experience depicting life on a floating city. Beyond the recreation of realistic interior spaces within a floating building, the virtual environment will oscillate in accordance with simulated building motions excited by different sea states. The immersive VR experience will help designers and prospective occupants decide whether such vibrations will be acceptable for general habitation per their individual requirements. Ultimately, we present a widely accessible communication and education tool for the replication of complex environmental conditions to support stakeholder decision making concerning unprecedented infrastructure solutions for climate adaptation.

Relevant Publications

Wang, S., Han, B. (2023). Simulating Structural Motions of Floating Cities in an Immersive Virtual Reality Environment. ASCE International Conference on Computing in Civil Engineering (i3CE 2023), Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon

Wang, S., Han, B. (2023). Immersive Virtual Reality as a Communication Tool towards the Development of Floating Cities for Climate Adaptation. At What Point Managed Retreat?: Habitability and Mobility in an Era of Climate Change, Columbia University, New York

Community-scale modular floating structures (MFS) offer a sustainable alternative over traditional land reclamation for the expansion of coastal megalopolises in the context of climate change adaptation. While floating structures are widely adopted by the offshore hydrocarbon industry, large-scale pontoons designed for permanent human habitation have rarely progressed beyond architectural speculation. The lack of guidelines accessible to structural engineers on the analysis of floating structures further complicates their implementation.

This research formulates and evaluates simplified analytical solutions readily accessible for the dynamic analysis of MFS subject to regular or irregular waves. Numerical simulations comprising smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and potential theory are leveraged to benchmark closed-form expressions for the response amplitude operators (RAO) pertaining to the translational and rotational motions of a conventional pontoon. Ultimately, this work represents a significant step towards the realization of MFS for urban expansion by providing structural engineers with a practical methodology for the dynamic analysis of floating structures as a precursor to detailed computational modeling.

Relevant Publications

Wang, S. (2025). Derivation of 3D dynamics for rigid floating structures under directional wave excitation. Sustainable Marine Structures, 7 (1), 35–51

Wang, S. (2023). Simplified analytical solutions to the yaw dynamics of modular floating structures. Ocean Engineering, 276

Wang, S. (2022). Analytical solutions for the dynamic analysis of a modular floating structure for urban expansion. Ocean Engineering, 266

Wang, S. (2022). SPH and analytical modeling of an urban floating structure for coastal expansion. Proceedings of 37th Conference on Coastal Engineering, Sydney, Australia