Numerical investigation of wave elevation and bottom pressure generated by a planing hull in finite-depth water

A numerical investigation of the bottom pressure and wave elevation generated by a planing hull in finite-depth water is presented. While the existing literature addresses the free-surface deformation and pressure field at the seafloor independently, this work proposes a direct comparison between the two hydrodynamic quantities. The dependence of the pressure disturbances at the ocean floor from the waves generated at the free-surface by a planing hull is studied for several values of both the depth and hull Froude numbers. The methodology employed is Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH), a numerical technique based on the discretization of the continuum fields of hydrodynamics through mesh-less particles. The SPH code herein chosen is initially validated against experimental data for transom-stern flow. Subsequently, numerical simulations are presented for a planing hull in high-speed regimes. The results show a direct correlation between surface wave dynamics and hydrodynamic pressure disturbances at the seafloor as the value of the Froude number is varied. This is assessed by studying the inverse dependence of the low-pressure wake angle with the Froude number and by comparison of SPH results with similar works in the cited literature.     

Application of desingularized approach to water wave propagation over three-dimensional topography

A numerical approach based on desingularized boundary element method and mixed Eulerian–Lagrangian formulation [Zhang et al., 2006. Wave propagation in a fully nonlinear numerical wave tank: a desingularized method. Ocean Engineering 33, 2310–2331] is extended to solve the water wave propagation over arbitrary topography in a three-dimensional wave tank. A robust damping layer applicable for regular and irregular incident waves is employed to minimize the outgoing wave reflection back into the wave tank. Numerical results on the propagation of regular and irregular incident waves over the flat bottom and linear incident waves over an elliptical shoal show good concurrence with the corresponding analytical solutions and experimental data.     

Design pressure distributions on the hull of the FLOW wave energy converter

This paper presents a procedure to calculate the design pressure distributions on the hull of a wave energy converter (WEC). Design pressures are the maximum pressure values that the device is expected to experience during its operational life time. The procedure is applied to the prototype under development by Martifer Energy (FLOW—Future Life in Ocean Waves).A boundary integral method is used to solve the hydrodynamic problem. The hydrodynamic pressures are combined with the hydrostatic ones and the internal pressures of the large ballast tanks. The first step consists of validating the numerical results of motions by comparison with measured experimental data obtained with a scaled model of the WEC. The numerical model is tuned by adjusting the damping of the device rotational motions and the equivalent damping and stiffness of the power take-off system. The pressure distributions are calculated for all irregular sea states representative of the Portuguese Pilot Zone where the prototype will be installed and a long term distribution method is used to calculate the expected maximum pressures on the hull corresponding to the 100-year return period.     

三维极限波的产生方法及特性

极限破碎波浪是造成海洋结构物破坏的主要因素之一,对极限波浪的产生方法和特性进行研究具有重要的工程意义.利用长波传播快、短波传播慢的原理,从理论上给出了产生三维极限波的方法,利用基于Boussinesq方程的数值模拟对该方法进行了验证,同时研究了中心频率、频率宽度和频谱形式等对极限波浪特性的影响,为该方法的进一步应用提出了建议.     

A finite difference method for effective treatment of mild-slope wave equation subject to non-reflecting boundary conditions

A numerical model for coastal water wave motion that includes an effective method for treatment of non-reflecting boundaries is presented. The second-order one-way wave equation to approximate the non-reflecting boundary condition is found to be excellent and it ensures a very low level of reflection for waves approaching the boundary at a fairly wide range of the incidence angle. If the Newman approximation is adopted, the resulting boundary condition has a unique property to allow the free propagation of wave components along the boundary. The study is also based on a newly derived mild-slope wave equation system that can be easily made compatible to the one-way wave equation. The equation system is theoretically more accurate than the previous equations in terms of the mild-slope assumption. The finite difference method defined on a staggered grid is employed to solve the basic equations and to implement the non-reflecting boundary condition. For verification, the numerical model is then applied to three coastal water wave problems including the classical problem of plane wave diffraction by a vertical circular cylinder, the problem of combined wave diffraction and refraction over a submerged hump in the open sea, and the wave deformation around a detached breakwater. In all cases, the numerical results are demonstrated to agree very well with the relevant analytical solutions or with experimental data. It is thus concluded that the numerical model proposed in this study is effective and advantageous.     

Wave pattern induced by a moving atmospheric pressure disturbance

A moving low atmospheric pressure is a main feature of tropical cyclones, which can induce a system of forced water waves and is an important factor that cause water level rise during a storm. A numerical model based on the nonlinear shallow water equations is applied to study the forced waves caused by an atmospheric pressure disturbance moving with a constant velocity over water surface. The effects of the moving speed, the spatial scale and the central pressure drop of the pressure disturbance are discussed. The results show that the wave pattern caused by a moving low-pressure is highly related with its moving speed. The wave pattern undergoes a great change as the moving speed approaches the wave velocity in shallow water. When the moving speed is less than the wave velocity, the distribution of water surface elevation is nearly the same as that of the pressure disturbance, and the maximum of the water surface elevation is located at the center of pressure. When the moving speed is larger than the wave velocity, a triangle shaped wave pattern is formed with a depression occurs in front of the pressure center, and the maximum of the water surface elevation lags behind the center of pressure. As the moving speed increases, the maximum of the water surface elevation firstly increases and then decreases, which reaches a peak when the moving speed is close to the wave velocity. The maximum of water surface elevation is approximately in proportion to the central pressure drop, and slightly affected by the spatial scale of pressure disturbance. Both the central pressure drop and the spatial scale of the pressure disturbance do not significantly affect the forced wave pattern. However, a clear difference can be noticed on the ratio of the maximum water surface elevation in moving pressure situation to that in static situation, when the moving speed is close to the wave velocity. A pressure disturbance with smaller spatial scale and smaller central pressure drop will give a larger ratio when the moving speed is close to the wave velocity.     

An unsteady wave driver for narrowbanded waves: modeling nearshore circulation driven by wave groups

In this paper, we derive an unsteady refraction–diffraction model for narrowbanded water waves for use in computing coupled wave–current motion in the nearshore. The end result is a variable coefficient, nonlinear Schrödinger-type wave driver (describing the envelope of narrow-banded incident waves) coupled to forced nonlinear shallow water equations (describing steady or unsteady mean flows driven by the short-wave field). Comparisons with experimental data show that good accuracy can be obtained for cases of nonbreaking wave transformation. Numerical simulations show that the interaction of wave groups with longshore topographic nonuniformities generates strong edge wave resonances, providing a generating mechanism for low-order edge waves.     

The vibration of a large ring-stiffened prolate dome under external water pressure

The paper presents a theoretical and an experimental investigation into the free vibration of a large ring-stiffened prolate dome in air and under external water pressure.The theoretical investigation was via the finite element method where a solid fluid mesh with an isoparametric cross-section was used to model the water surrounding the dome, and a truncated conical shell and ring stiffener were used to model the structure. Good agreement was found between theory and experiment. Both the theory and the experiment found that as the external water pressure was increased the resonant frequencies decreased.     

Vibration of a thin-walled prolate dome under external water pressure

The paper reports on a theoretical and an experimental investigation carried out on a thin-walled hemi-ellipsoidal prolate dome in air and also under external water pressure. The investigation found that there was good correlation between experiment and theory. The theoretical investigation was carried out using the finite element analysis to model both the structure and the fluid. The theoretical investigation used two different programs, one of which was the giant computer program ANSYS and the other was an in-house program developed by Ross. For the shell structure, the ANSYS program used 2 different doubly curved thin-walled shell elements, while the in-house program used a simpler axisymmetric thin-walled shell element. This axisymmetric element allowed a sinusoidal variation of the displacements in the circumferential direction, thus, decreasing preparation and computational time. Agreement between the 3 different finite elements was found to be good. This was found particularly encouraging for the in-house software, as it only took a few hours to set up the computer model, and a few seconds to analyse the vessel, whereas the ANSYS software took several weeks to set up the computer model, and several minutes to analyse the shell dome. The ANSYS software, however, did have the advantage in producing excellent graphical displays in both the pre-processing and post-processing modes.     

Scattering of oblique waves by permeable vertical flexible membrane wave barriers

The interaction of obliquely incident surface gravity waves with a vertical flexible permeable submerged membrane wave barrier is investigated in the context of three-dimensional linear water wave theory. From the general formulation of the submerged membrane barrier, the performance of bottom-standing, surface-piercing and fully extended membrane wave barriers are analyzed for various values of wave and structural parameters. The analytic solution of the physical problem is obtained using eigenfunction expansion method and a coupled boundary element-finite difference method has been used to get the numerical solution. In the boundary element method, since the boundary condition on the membrane barrier is not known a priori, the membrane response and velocity potentials are solved simultaneously using appropriate discretization with the help of finite difference scheme. The convergence of the analytic and numerical solution techniques is discussed. The study reveals that for suitable combination of wave and structural parameters, approximately (45–50)% incident wave energy can be dissipated irrespective of membrane barrier configurations. Further, in certain situations, nearly full wave reflection and zero transmission occur for all barrier configurations. The study will be useful in the design of flexible permeable membrane to act as an effective wave barrier for creation of tranquility zone in the marine environment.     

Hybrid three-dimensional finite-difference and finite-element analysis of seismic wave induced fluid–structure interaction of a vertical cylinder

The two-dimensional finite-difference scheme has been extended to three dimensions to solve nonlinear hydrodynamic pressures and structural responses of a deformable, vertical and circular surface-piercing offshore cylinder during earthquakes. A complete three-dimensional analysis has been made with both the three-dimensional equations of motion and the simultaneous action of three components of ground acceleration included in the analysis. Not only the magnitude but also the direction of the acting ground motion can be varied with time. The dynamic response of a cylinder is approximated by the displacements in the fundamental modes of vibration. A comparison of the dynamic displacement of the cylinder with and without surrounding sea water has been made. The flexibility of the offshore cylinder can significantly increase the hydrodynamic pressures acting on cylinder faces, that is, the fluid-structure interaction is necessary in offshore cylinder analysis. Although the hydrodynamic pressure induced by the vertical ground acceleration of the El Centro 1979 earthquake is significant, the calculated structural dynamic response of a cylinder is very small and the corresponding resultant hydrodynamic force is almost nil. The hydrodynamic force induced by two-horizontal ground acceleration is about the same as that by three simultaneous components of ground acceleration. For a solid and stubbier circular cylinder, the vertical component of ground acceleration may be neglected.     

Experimental study of long wave generation on sloping bottoms

Low-frequency waves generated on steep (1:10) and mild (1:40) slopes by six series of bichromatic wave groups are studied experimentally. The shorelines for both slopes are replaced by horizontal reaches of small depth. This reduces the reflection of long waves near the shoreline significantly, which for the first time makes possible the explicit observation of outgoing breakpoint forced long waves. The breakpoint and released bound long wave mechanisms on the different slopes are compared. Generally, the breakpoint forced long waves dominate the low-frequency wave field on the steep slope, while the released bound long waves are found to be more significant on the mild slope. Two parameters indexing the effectiveness of the breakpoint mechanism are compared and the normalized slope tends to give more realistic results. Shoaling of bound long waves is analyzed and the shallow-water equilibrium limit ~ h^−5/2 exhibits a good prediction of the variation of the bound long waves on both slopes.     

Probability distributions of wave heights in bimodal seas in an offshore basin

This study aims at assessing the adequacy for describing bimodal sea states of different non-linear probability distributions that have been developed for single sea states. It is based on data collected at an offshore test basin. The measurements represent three bimodal sea states with individual unidirectional wave systems propagating at 60, 90 and 120 from each other. The wave spectra are separated into swell and wind sea components and the relative energy ratio between the areas under the associated spectral curves is estimated and is related with the statistics of the time series considered. Dependence is found between the normalized high order cumulants, which describe the non-Gaussian surface, and the predominant contribution of the wind sea energy. Furthermore, the probabilities of exceedance of the individual wave heights are estimated and compared with the Rayleigh model and with other models that take into account either the effect of spectral bandwidth or the effect of wave nonlinearities. The results are discussed with respect to three classes of sea states that reflect the relative contribution of swell and wind sea energy.     

Automated trinocular stereo imaging system for three-dimensional surface wave measurements

A novel automated trinocular stereo imaging system (ATSIS) is developed for non-intrusively measuring the temporal evolution of three-dimensional wave characteristics. The system consists of three progressive digital cameras to provide three independent stereo-pairs, i.e. left–right, left–center, and center–right, for accurately estimating depth of a scene. A third camera assists to resolve correspondence problems due to specular reflection on the water surface and provides additional constraints on image matching, dramatically reducing the chance of a mismatch. An oblique configuration for the trinocular system effectively increases spatial coverage, allowing observations of wave phenomena over a broad range of spatial scales. The height resolution is increased with the optical axes of the cameras pointed at an oblique angle with respect to vertical surface wave displacements. A new exterior calibration procedure is developed in this paper to determine the orientation of cameras in the field. Field experiments demonstrate that ATSIS can robustly measure hundreds of matched image points in seconds, allowing fast extraction of the temporal evolution of a three-dimensional surface wave field.     

Numerical simulation of nonlinear wave radiation by a moving vertical cylinder

In this paper the fully nonlinear potential model based on a finite element method is used to investigate the nonlinear wave motion around a moving circular cylinder. The results for the cylinder in transient motion are compared with the experimental data and a much better agreement than the linear theory is found. Further simulation for a circular cylinder in sinusoidal motion is made. It is found that when the ratio of the cylinder diameter D to the wavelength L is relatively small at a fixed motion amplitude the nonlinear components of the runup on the cylinder surface at the second- and third-harmonic frequencies become more important and this is confirmed by the experimental data. Results for the hydrodynamic force are also provided for a cylinder oscillating in a channel. It is noticed that when the frequency of the cylinder motion in a channel is between the first and the second natural frequencies of the symmetric mode, the time history has components not only at the frequency of the cylinder motion but also at the first natural frequency. The latter remains significant over the period that the simulation is made. This has important implications to model testing. If measurement is to be made at such a frequency it may take long time for the motion to become periodic at the frequency of the cylinder motion.     

Estimating wave crest distributions using the method of L-moments

The design of fixed or floating offshore structures requires accurate information of the met-ocean data at the intended offshore site. In the design process it is recognized that this environmental data is modified in the near-field by the interaction with the particular geometrical configuration of the offshore structure. This transformation of the incident wave field around and beneath an offshore structure presents a challenge for ocean engineers when specifying the wave gap elevation to avoid impact loads on the underside of the deck and inundation of the topsides. Thus, the accurate estimation of the wave crest distributions from measurements at various locations near and under the offshore structure during model test studies is essential. A semi-empirical approach is presented herein that builds upon the findings of previous studies and introduces the Method of L-moments. A three parameter model for a wave crest probability distribution function is presented and explicit relationships between the parameters of the distribution and its’ first three L-Moments are established. Furthermore, three narrow-band models from earlier research studies are reviewed and compared with the new model. Wave measurements from a mini-TLP model test program are used as the basis for comparison of the four distributions. The root-mean-square error is used as a metric to quantify the overall fit of the data and its accuracy in the high end tail of the data. The L-Moment model is shown to be more robust in representing the data in both the far-field and beneath the deck of the mini-TLP where the wave field demonstrates increased non-linear behavior.     

The difference between the joint probability distributions of apparent wave heights and periods and individual wave heights and periods

The joint distribution of wave heights and periods of individual waves is usually approximated by the joint distribution of apparent wave heights and periods. However there is difference between them. This difference is addressed and the theoretical joint distributions of apparent wave heights and periods due to Longuet-Higgins and Sun are modified to give more reasonable representations of the joint distribution of wave heights and periods of individual waves. The modification has overcome an inherent drawback of these joint PDFs that the mean wave period is infinite. A comparison is made between the modified formulae and the field data of Goda, which shows that the new formulae consist with the measurement better than their original counterparts.     

Laboratory study of wave and turbulence velocities in a broad-banded irregular wave surf zone

The characteristics of wave and turbulence velocities created by a broad-banded irregular wave train breaking on a 1:35 slope were studied in a laboratory wave flume. Water particle velocities were measured simultaneously with wave elevations at three cross-shore locations inside the surf zone. The measured data were separated into low-frequency and high-frequency time series using a Fourier filter. The measured velocities were further separated into organized wave-induced velocities and turbulent velocity fluctuations by ensemble averaging. The broad-banded irregular waves created a wide surf zone that was dominated by spilling type breakers. A wave-by-wave analysis was carried out to obtain the probability distributions of individual wave heights, wave periods, peak wave velocities, and wave-averaged turbulent kinetic energies and Reynolds stresses. The results showed that there was a consistent increase in the kurtosis of the vertical velocity distribution from the surface to the bottom. The abnormally large downward velocities were produced by plunging breakers that occurred from time to time. It was found that the mean of the highest one-third wave-averaged turbulent kinetic energy values in the irregular waves was about the same as the time-averaged turbulent kinetic energy in a regular wave with similar deep-water wave height to wavelength ratio. It was also found that the correlation coefficient of the Reynolds stress varied strongly with turbulence intensity. Good correlation between u′ and w′ was obtained when the turbulence intensity was high; the correlation coefficient was about 0.3–0.5. The Reynolds stress correlation coefficient decreased over a wave cycle, and with distance from the water surface. Under the irregular breaking waves, turbulent kinetic energy was transported downward and landward by turbulent velocity fluctuations and wave velocities, and upward and seaward by the undertow. The undertow in the irregular waves was similar in vertical structure but lower in magnitude than in regular waves, and the horizontal velocity profiles under the low-frequency waves were approximately uniform.     

礁坪上波浪传播的数值模拟

本文基于具备间断捕捉能力的二阶全非线性Boussinesq数值模型,对规则波和随机波在礁坪地形上的传播变形进行了数值模拟。该模型采用高阶有限体积法和有限差分方法求解守恒格式的控制方程,将波浪破碎视为间断,同时采用静态重构技术处理了海岸动边界问题。重点针对礁坪上波浪传播过程中的波高空间分布和沿程衰减,礁坪上的平均水位变化,以及波浪能量频谱的移动和空间差异等典型水动力现象开展数值计算。将数值结果与实验结果对比,两者吻合情况良好,验证了模型具有良好的稳定性,具备模拟破碎波浪和海-岸动边界的能力,能较为准确地模拟波浪在礁坪地形上的传播过程中发生的各种水动力现象。