Measurement uncertainties are inevitable during physical wave tank tests. Therefore,
when validating a numerical wave tank against experiments, knowledge of the uncertainties
in the physical experiments, and the sensitivity of the body dynamics to such uncertainties,
is crucial. Specifically, the inertial properties, as well as the location of the
centre of mass (CoM), which are challenging to measure accurately, can have a significant
influence on the system dynamics. On the basis of test cases of the Collaborative
Computational Project in Wave Structure Interaction Blind Test Series 2, this paper
presents a sensitivity analysis of the agreement between experimental and numerical
data sets to the quality of the incident, focused wave, as well as the inertial properties
and the location of the CoM. A significant influence on the modelled system dynamics
can be observed when changing the system parameters, resulting in a variation of the
observed error of up to 80 percentage points for pitch motion.
