Effects of Free Heave Motion on Wave Forces on Two Side-by-Side Boxes in Close Proximity Under Wave Actions

Wave forces on two side-by-side boxes in close proximity under wave actions were analyzed using the OpenFOAM package. The upstream box heaved freely under wave actions, whereas the downstream box remained fixed. For comparison, a configuration in which both boxes were fixed was also considered. The effects of the heave motion of the upstream box on the wave loads, including the horizontal wave forces, vertical wave forces, and moments on the boxes, were the focus of this study. Numerical analyses showed that all frequencies at which the maximum horizontal wave forces, maximum vertical wave forces, and maximum moment appeared are dependent on the heave motion of the upstream box and that the effects of the heave motion on these frequencies are different. Furthermore,these frequencies were observed to deviate from the corresponding fluid resonant frequency. Moreover, the heave motion of the upstream box reduced the wave forces acting on both boxes and altered the variation trends of the wave forces with the incident wave frequency.     

Measurements of higher harmonic wave forces on a vertical truncated circular cylinder

Wave forces on a vertical truncated circular cylinder in Stokes waves with the wave slopes ranging from 0.06 to 0.24, are measured in a wave tank. The higher harmonic wave forces are compared with the available values from theories of the FNV (Faltisen–Newman–Vinje) model and Varyani solution. The first harmonic horizontal forces measured are much larger than the theoretical values from the FNV model, while the first harmonic vertical forces are well predicted by the Varyani theory. It was also found that the FNV model significantly overpredicts the second harmonic horizontal forces in high frequency waves, but under predicts the third harmonic forces. The differences between the actual measurement and the theory, in the second and third harmonic horizontal forces, become smaller at low wave frequencies as the wave slope increases. In addition, the transverse instabilities in the incoming waves with high wave slope were observed, which is due to the nonlinear modulation. Measurements were, thus, carried out before the instability occurred.     

Hydrodynamic coefficients of a harmonically oscillated tower

A tower hinged at the bottom was oscillated mechanically in a sinusoidal fashion in a plane in still water. An instrumented section in the tower measured the inline and transverse forces locally on the tower due to the hydrodynamic effects. These forces are analyzed for the added mass, drag and lift coefficients which are presented as functions of Keulegan-Carpenter and Reynolds number. The lift force frequencies are also investigated. The measured overall reactions on the tower are used to verify the values of the local coefficients. The results presented here are not only applicable to articulated towers but to other moving elements of an offshore structure, e.g. risers, tension-legs, etc.     

Laser doppler anemometer measurements of irregular water wave kinematics

The location of offshore structures for the purpose of recovering deep water resources has provided the impetus to more accurately predict forces acting on the structure so that costs can be minimized while the structure can safely withstand environmental forces. Accurate prediction of wave kinematics is a vital step in the more accurate prediction of environmental forces. In this study, a laser Doppler anemometer is used to measure the horizontal velocity under the largest wave occurring in an irregular sea generated in a laboratory wave tank. Specifically, JONSWAP and Pierson-Moskowitz wave spectra were generated in the wave tank and the horizontal velocity was measured at locations both above and below the still water level beneath the wave crest. The laboratory measured velocity values tend to lie between those predicted by linear extrapolation and Wheeler stretching. The results are not consistently predicted by either of the stretching methods, and therefore, it is not known which method will give a more accurate prediction before the data are measured.     

The effects of yawing motion with different frequencies on the hydrodynamic performance of floating vertical-axis tidal current turbines

Under real sea conditions, the hydrodynamic performance of floating vertical-axis tidal current turbines is affected by waves and currents. The wave circular frequency is a significant factor in determining the frequencies of the wave-induced motion responses of turbines. In this study, the ANSYS-CFX software (manufacturer: ANSYS Inc., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States) is used to analyse the hydrodynamic performance of a vertical-axis turbine for different yawing frequencies and to study how the yawing frequencies affect the main hydrodynamic coefficients of the turbine, including the power coefficient, thrust coefficient, lateral force coefficient, and yawing moment coefficient. The time-varying curves obtained from the CFX software are fitted using the least-squares method; the damping and added mass coefficients are then calculated to analyse the influence of different yawing frequencies. The simulation results demonstrate that when analysing non-yawing turbines rotating under constant inflow, the main hydrodynamic coefficient time-varying curves of yawing turbines exhibit an additional fluctuation. Furthermore, the amplitude is positively correlated with the yawing frequency, and the oscillation amplitudes also increase with increasing yawing frequency; however, the average values of the hydrodynamic coefficients (except the power coefficient) are only weakly influenced by yawing motion. The power coefficient under yawing motion is lower than that under non-yawing motion, which means that yawing motion will cause the annual energy production of a turbine to decrease. The fitting results show that the damping term and the added mass term exert effects of the same level on the loads and moments of vertical-axis turbines under yawing motion. The results of this study can facilitate the study of the motion response of floating vertical-axis tidal current turbine systems in waves.     

Interaction of linear waves with an array of infinitely long horizontal circular cylinders in a two-layer fluid of infinite depth

The linear water wave scattering and radiation by an array of infinitely long horizontal circular cylinders in a two-layer fluid of infinite depth is investigated by use of the multipole expansion method. The diffracted and radiated potentials are expressed as a linear combination of infinite multipoles placed at the centre of each cylinder with unknown coefficients to be determined by the cylinder boundary conditions. Analytical expressions for wave forces, hydrodynamic coefficients, reflection and transmission coefficients and energies are derived. Comparisons are made between the present analytical results and those obtained by the boundary element method, and some examples are presented to illustrate the hydrodynamic behavior of multiple horizontal circular cylinders in a two-layer fluid. It is found that for two submerged circular cylinders the influence of the fluid density ratio on internal-mode wave forces is more appreciable than surface-mode wave forces, and the periodic oscillations of hydrodynamic results occur with the increase of the distance between two cylinders; for four submerged circular cylinders the influence of adding two cylinders on the wave forces of the former cylinders is small in low and high wave frequencies, but the influence is appreciable in intermediate wave frequencies.     

Wave-current forces on bipiles in parallel array

The inline and lift forces on bipiles in parallel array induced by both irregular waves and currents were investigated experimentally in this paper. The characteristics in both time and frequency domains of inline, lift and resultant forces as well were analyzed. The grouping effect coefficients of inline and resultant forces on two piles related to KC number and relative spacing parameters are given. A comparison of the magnitude and direction of resultant forces on two piles in parallel array with the corresponding values for single cylinder is also made.     

Investigation of motions of catamarans in regular waves—II

By extending the linear frequency domain theory, a quasi-non-linear time-domain technique has been developed to investigate the large amplitude motions of catamarans in regular waves. The non-linearity of hydrodynamic forces included in this practical method comes from variations of a ship's submerged portion. These forces are obtained from a database generated by the linear frequency domain method at each time step. The coupled equations, heave and pitch, are solved in the time domain by using the Runge-Kutta method with proper initial values. In order to investigate the non-linear effects of large amplitude motions of the V-1 catamaran in the head-sea condition, numerical results obtained from the linear and non-linear strip methods have been compared with those obtained from a series of experiments carried out in the towing tank of the Hydrodynamics Laboratory at the University of Glasgow. Based on the comparative studies, the numerical results obtained from the time-domain program can provide better predictions for the large amplitude motions of catamarans than the linear frequency domain method. It is concluded that the non-linear effects are significant when the model speeds and wave amplitudes increase. The peak values of large amplitude motions around the resonance frequencies, as obtained from the non-linear time-domain predictions as well as from measurements, are smaller than those obtained from the linear theory.     

Nonlinear hydroelastic analysis of a moored floating body

By integration of the second-order fluid pressure over the instantaneous wetted surface, the generalized first- and second-order fluid forces used in nonlinear hydroelastic analysis are obtained. The expressions for coefficients of the generalized first- and second-order hydrodynamic forces in irregular waves are also given. The coefficients of the restoring forces of a mooring system acting on a flexible floating body are presented. The linear and nonlinear three-dimensional hydroelastic equations of motion of a moored floating body in frequency domain are established. These equations include the second-order forces, induced by the rigid body rotations of large amplitudes in high waves, the variation of the instantaneous wetted surface and the coupling of the first order wave potentials. The first-order and second-order principal coordinates of the hydrelastic vibration of a moored floating body are calculated. The frequency characteristics of the principal coordinates are discussed. The numerical results indicate that the rigid resonance and the coupling resonance of a moored floating body can occur in low frequency domain while the flexible resonance can occur in high frequency domain. The hydroelastic responses of a moored box-type barge are also given in this paper. The effects of the second-order forces on the modes are investigated in detail.     

On diffraction and radiation problem for two cylinders in water of finite depth

The hydrodynamic problem arising form the interaction of linear water waves with a wave energy device consisting of two coaxial vertical cylinders of different radii is investigated. One cylinder is riding in waves, while another is submerged in fluid. By use of the method of separation of variables and the method of matched eigenfunction expansion, analytical expressions for the potentials are obtained. Using the expressions for the potentials, analytical expressions for the hydrodynamic coefficients and exciting forces/moments on the device are obtained. Numerical results of the hydrodynamic coefficients and exciting forces/moments are presented for some ratios of the radius of the submerged cylinder to that of the riding one. It is found that the radius of the submerged cylinder has a significant influence on the hydrodynamic coefficients and exciting forces/moments for relatively bigger radius of the submerged cylinder at low frequencies.     

Hydrodynamics of A Flexible Riser Undergoing the Vortex-Induced Vibration at High Reynolds Number

This study proposed a method to obtain hydrodynamic forces and coefficients for a flexible riser undergoing the vortex-induced vibration (VIV), based on the measured strains collected from the scale-model testing with the Reynolds numbers ranging from 1.34E5 to 2.35E5. The riser is approximated as a tensioned spatial beam, and an inverse method based on the FEM of spatial beam is adopted for the calculation of hydrodynamic forces in the cross flow (CF) and inline (IL) directions. The drag coefficients and vortex-induced force coefficients are obtained through the Fourier Series Theory. Finally, the hydrodynamic characteristics of a flexible riser model undergoing the VIV in a uniform flow are carefully investigated. The results indicate that the VIV amplifies the drag coefficient, and the drag coefficient does not change with time when the CF VIV is stable. Only when the VIVs in the CF and IL directions are all steady vibrations, the vortex-induced force coefficients keep as a constant with time, and under “lock-in” condition, whether the added-mass coefficient changes with time or not, the oscillation frequency of the VIV keeps unchanged. It further shows that the CF excitation coefficients at high frequency are much smaller than those at the dominant frequency, while, the IL excitation coefficients are in the same range. The axial distributions of the excitation and damping region at the dominant frequency and high frequency are approximately consistent in the CF direction, while, in the IL direction, there exists a great difference.     

Hydrodynamic coefficients for a vertical tube in an array

In a wave tank test with vertical tube array arranged transverse to the wave direction, forces on two 1 ft instrumented sections as well as on the tubes are measured. The effect of the spacing of the tubes upon the forces on the tubes are investigated. The mass and drag coefficients are determined from the forces on the instrumented sections of the tubes. They are presented as functions of the Keulegan-Carpenter number (or the period parameter) and the tube spacing. The total forces on the tubes are computed based on the mean values of the hydrodynamic coefficients. The correlation between these calculated values and the measured forces is found to be good.     

New Method for Predicting the Motion Responses of A Flexible Joint Multi-Body Floating System to Irregular Waves

A new hybrid method of frequency domain and time domain is developed in this paper to predict the motion responses of a flexibly joint multi-body floating system to irregular waves. The main idea of the method is that the three-dimensional frequency method is used to obtain the hydrodynamic coefficients and the response equations are solved in time domain step by step. All the forces can be obtained at the same time. The motions and nonlinear mooring forces of a box type six-body floating system are predicted. A comparison of the theoretical method-based solutions with experimental results has shown good agreement.     

水下桩腿长度变化对浮式结构固有频率的影响研究

为了分析带支腿浮式结构水下桩腿处于不同的长度时振动固有频率的变化情况,采用有限元方法和三维线性水弹性理论对一理想的带支腿浮式结构进行研究,分工况计算了3种弹性模态的干、湿固有频率。结果表明对于同一阶弹性模态来说,结构主体平台振型是决定水动力系数大小的主要因素,桩腿水下长度是次要因素,而振型又受到桩腿长度的制约;桩腿水下长度的改变对带支腿浮式结构的干模态固有频率以及湿固有频率都有较明显地调制作用。对于干模态固有频率来说,桩腿关于船身越趋于对称分布时结构的共振频率越高;对于湿固有频率来说,水下桩腿长度地增加有迫使共振频率趋向低频方向移动趋势。     

The Lift Forces Acting on a Submarine Composite Pipeline in a Wave-Current Coexisting Field

- A composite pipeline is defined as a main big pipe composed of one or several small pipes. The flow behaviour around a submarine composite pipeline is more complicated than that around a single submarine pipeline. A series model test of composite pipelines in a wave-current coexisting field was conducted by the authors. Both in-line and lift forces were measured, and the resultant forces were also analyzed. The results of lift forces and resultant forces are reported in this paper. It is found that the lift force coefficients for composite pipelines are well related to the KC number. The lift force coefficients for an irregular wave-current coexisting field are smaller than those for a regular wave-current coexisting field. The frequency of lift force is usually twice the wave frequency or higher. The authors test indicates that the resultant forces are about 10 to 20 percent larger than in-line forces (horizontal forces). The effect of water depth is analyzed. Finally, the relationship between lift f     

Modelling of multi-bodies in close proximity under water waves—Fluid forces on floating bodies

This work presents two-dimensional numerical results of the dependence of wave forces of multiple floating bodies in close proximity on the incident wave frequency, gap width, body draft, body breadth and body number based on both viscous fluid and potential flow models. The numerical models were validated by the available experimental data of fluid oscillation in narrow gaps. Numerical investigations show that the large amplitude responses of horizontal and vertical wave forces appear around the fluid resonant frequencies. The convectional potential flow model is observed to un-physically overestimate the magnitudes of wave forces as the fluid resonance takes place. By introducing artificial damping term with appropriate damping coefficients μ∈[0.4, 0.5], the potential flow model may work as well as the viscous fluid model, which agree with the damping coefficients used in our previous work for the predication of wave height under gap resonance. In addition, the numerical results of viscous fluid model suggest that the horizontal wave force is highly dependent on the water level difference between the opposite sides of an individual body and the overall horizontal wave force on the floating system is generally smaller than the summation of wave force on each body.     

An experimental investigation of hydrodynamic coefficients for a vertical truncated rectangular cylinder due to regular and random waves

The research into hydrodynamic loading on ocean structures has concentrated mostly on circular cross-section members and relatively limited work has been carried out on wave loading on other cross-sections such as rectangular sections. These find applications in many offshore structures as columns and pontoons in semi-submersibles and tension-leg platforms. The present investigation demonstrates the behaviour of rectangular cylinders subject to wave loading and also supplies the hydrodynamic coefficients for the design of these sections.This paper presents the results of wave forces acting on a surface piercing truncated rectangular cylinder set vertically in a towing tank. The experiments are carried out in a water depth of 2.2 m with regular and random waves for low Keulegan–Carpenter number up to 6. The rectangular cylinder is of 2 m length, 0.2 m breadth and 0.4 m width with a submergence depth of 1.45 m from still water level. Based on Morison equation, the relationship between inertia and drag coefficients are evaluated and are presented as a function of KC number for various values of frequency parameter β, for two aspect ratios of cylinders, equals to 1/2 and 2/1. Drag and inertia coefficients obtained through regular wave tests are used for the random wave analysis to compute the in-line force spectrum.The results of the experiments show the drag and inertia coefficients are strongly affected by the variation in the aspect ratios of the cylinder. The drag coefficients decreases and inertia coefficients increases with increase in Keulegan–Carpenter number up to the range of KC number tested. The random wave results show a good correlation between measured and computed force spectrums. The transverse forces in both regular and random waves are found to be small compared to in-line forces.     

The dynamics of wave induced ship motions in shallow water

The analytical method developed by Svendsen (1968) for a forced heave motion is extended to the general problem of wave induced heave, roll and sway motions of a long ship at a depth of water which is only slightly larger than the draught of the ship. This corresponds, for example, to the situation of a fully loaded ship in a harbour area.After linearization of the problem, the water motion is considered for each of the three individual motions and for the wave reflection-transmission problem for a fixed ship. The ensuing results for the forces on the ship are then synthesized to form the equations of motion, which are presented with all coefficients given, including mooring forces.Analytical and numerical results are given for the three components of motion, for the associated resonance frequencies, and for the hydrodynamic masses and moments of inertia. Finally, the assumptions used are analyzed and evaluated by comparison with measurements and with other results for a special case.     

Variations in wave direction estimated using first and second order Fourier coefficients

In most design applications such as alignment of the berthing structure and breakwater alignment, it becomes necessary to determine the direction of design wave. There are two different approaches to determine wave direction. One involves the use of first order Fourier coefficients (mean wave direction) while the other uses second order Fourier coefficients (principal wave direction). Both the average wave direction over the entire frequency range (0.03–0.58 Hz) and the direction corresponding to the peak frequency are used in practice. In the present study, comparison is made on wave directions estimated based on first and second order Fourier coefficients using data collected at four locations in the west and east coasts of India. Study shows that at all locations, the mean and principal wave directions for frequencies ranging from 0.07 to 0.25 Hz (±0.5 times peak frequency) co-vary with a correlation coefficient of 0.99 but at lower and higher frequencies, difference between the parameters is large. Average difference between the mean wave direction at peak frequency and the average over the frequency related to spectral energy more than 20% of maximum value is less, around 13°. Study shows that average difference in the sea and swell directions is around 39°.     

Extreme motion response analysis of moored semi-submersibles

The motion response prediction of offshore structures may be carried out using time domain or frequency domain models or model tests. The frequency domain analysis uses the simplified, linearised form of the motion equations and it is very economical. The time domain analysis, unlike frequency domain models, is adequate to deal with non-linearities such as viscous damping and mooring forces, but it requires sophisticated solution techniques and it is expensive to employ. For moored semisubmersibles time domain techniques must be employed since there are strong nonlinearities in the system due to mooring line stiffness and damping and viscous drag forces. In the first part of this paper a time domain model to predict the dynamic response of a semi-submersibles are developed and the effect of thrusters and mooring line damping are incorporated into the time domain model. In the second part time domain simulations are carried out to find the total extreme motions and mooring forces.