Nonlinear vibrations of offshore structures under random wave excitation

An account is given of some mathematical methods which have been used to analyse the response of offshore structures to random wave excitation. The analysis of nonlinear phenomena and the assessment of related nongaussian probability distributions are emphasized. The following problems are analysed in some depth: probability distributions for Morison-type wave loading; response near resonance of nonlinearly damped systems to random excitation; parametric resonance and instability of nonlinearly damped systems with randomly fluctuating restoring force coefficient. Solutions to each of these problem areas are illustrated by practical examples.