Nonlinear meta-models for conceptual seakeeping design of fishing vessels

The scope of this paper is to develop the nonlinear meta-models for seakeeping behaviour, considering the fishing vessels. These models are intended to be inserted either in a multiattribute design selection process or in a comprehensive multiobjective optimization procedure. For this purpose, seakeeping data of fishing vessels in regular head waves are used to develop meta-models of transfer functions of heave, pitch and vertical acceleration by nonlinear analysis. A home-made software considers two databases; the first is composed by the ship dimensions and coefficients of fishing vessels, and the second is their ship motion data obtained by employing a strip-theory calculation. The meta-models are proposed to predict the vertical motion characteristics for given ranges of speed and wave length during the concept design stage. The independent variables are hull size (Δ), main dimensions (L, B, T), and some hydrostatic parameters (C_WP, C_VP, LCB, LCF, etc.). The results estimated by the software show good correspondences with the ones achieved by direct computations. The study provides additional insight on the influence of hull form parameters on seakeeping performance of small vessels having form properties and parametric range corresponding to the investigated vessels.     

Seakeeping assessment of fishing vessels in conceptual design stage

The main idea of this paper is to identify functional relations between seakeeping characteristics and hull form parameters of Mediterranean fishing vessels. Multiple regression analysis is used for quantitative assessment through a computer software that is based on the SQL Server Database. The seakeeping attributes under investigation are the transfer functions of heave and pitch motions and of absolute vertical acceleration at stern, while the ship parameters influencing motion dynamics have been classified into two groups: displacement (Δ) and main dimensions (L, B, T), coefficients that define the details of the hull form (C_WP, C_VP, LCB, LCF, etc.).Four multiple regression models having different parameter combinations are here investigated and discussed, giving way to the so-called ‘Simple Model’, ‘Intermediate Model’, ‘Enhanced 1 Model’ and ‘Enhanced 2 Model’. The obtained results are more than satisfactory for seakeeping predictions during the conceptual design stage.     

Parametric studies on seaworthiness of SWATH ships

This paper reports seakeeping studies performed on a parametrically varied set of SWATH hull forms. The SWATH form, because of its de-linked nature of design affords many variations of the underwater hull geometry without affecting overall deck length and beam. For a given displacement, the hull form can be varied in terms of length, basic section shape, maximum area of cross section of under water hull and strut water plane shape. Using these variants, a parametric family of hull forms has been generated employing Chebychev polynomial scheme for representing sectional area distribution and using a bi-quintic B-spline based surface definition scheme. Not all designs offer optimal performance in a given sea state. A twin-hull motion analysis program SEDOS has been used to study the motions and other dynamic effects. Setting criteria for operability, these dynamic effects have been quantified into a single value namely, operability index. The approach here fulfils an investigation at the design stage in order to tap the full advantage of the SWATH form. The study brings out a methodology for assessment of the SWATH at the design stage highlighting interesting results related to section shapes and sectional area distribution. Thus, combining a newly developed interactive surface generation scheme with an analysis package, a rapid assessment tool is offered for new design.     

Full scale CFD seakeeping simulations for case study ship redesigned from V-shaped bulbous bow to X-bow hull form

Increasing propulsion efficiency, safety, comfort and operability are of the great importance, especially for small ships operating on windy sites like the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Seakeeping performance of ships and offshore structures can be analysed by different methods and the one that is becoming increasingly important is CFD RANS. The recent development of simulation techniques together with rising HPC accessibility enables performance of advanced seakeeping simulations for ships in a full scale. The paper presents CFD seakeeping analysis for a case study vessel in two variants: V-shaped bulbous bow hull form (as built) and innovative hull form (X-bow type). The study presents the influence of redesigning the ship on selected seakeeping aspects. The advanced CFD model, with the application of overset mesh technique, was described in detail. Selected numerical results were validated on the basis of experimental testing in a towing tank and showed good agreement. The approach demonstrated here of performing the CFD seakeeping simulations for the analysis of ship performance in a full scale and close to real loading conditions has direct application to the design process as well as in determination of optimal operational parameters of any ship.     

Evaluation of cross curves of fishing vessels at the preliminary design stage

The prediction of ship stability during the early stages of the design process is very important from the point of a vessel's safety. Hence, in this study, a formula is presented to estimate cross curves of fishing vessels to predict initial stability at the preliminary design stage. For this purpose, 175 fishing vessel forms have been generated from Doust trawler hull series. The predictive technique is established by regression analysis of systematically varied fishing vessel series data. The mathematical model is constructed as a function of main design parameters such as length to beam ratio L_WL/B_WL, beam to draft ratio B_WL/T, moulded depth to draft ratio D/T and block coefficient C_B. This prediction is also used to determine the effect of specific hull form parameters and load conditions on the stability of the fishing vessel. Some basic considerations on how the proposed method can be applied to a new fishing vessel are presented.     

Experimental study on hydrodynamic performance of SWATH vessels in calm water and in head waves

An extensive experimental investigation on four SWATH hull forms has been conducted in calm water and in regular waves at University of Naples Federico II. Calm water tests have been analyzed in the range of Froude number Fr_T from 0.1 to 0.6. For all four SWATH configurations at the speed, corresponding to Fr_T 0.32, the behaviour in regular waves has been tested. The results of heave, pitch and vertical accelerations are presented in nondimensional form as RAO. For the “most promising” SWATH #4 configuration, a set of stabilizing fins have been designed and an active stabilization system has been developed. The developed SWATH#5 has been tested in calm water on three displacements in the range of Fr_T from 0.1 to 0.65. The dynamic wetted surface has been identified and the residual resistance coefficient C_R as well as R_T/Δ are reported. Seakeeping tests have been performed in regular head sea and in head and following irregular sea at Fr_T = 0.50. The conditions for the occurrence of dynamic longitudinal instabilities have been identified. The results allows to comment the effect of slenderness of struts and SWATH’s immersed bodies on resistance and seakeeping and concerns the applicability of SWATH concept to small craft.     

The occurrence of irregular frequencies in forward speed ship seakeeping numerical calculations

This study investigates the occurrence of irregular frequencies in a seakeeping analysis of a ship moving with forward speed. This is achieved by formulating the interior virtual flow Dirichlet or Neumann eigenvalue problem. A theoretical analysis of a rectangular box travelling and oscillating in waves reveals that in the forward speed case, apart from the singular irregular frequency at zero encounter frequency, no irregular frequencies exist whilst at zero forward speed multiple irregular frequencies are observed confirming previous findings. These theoretical predictions are further verified by numerical calculations involving the rectangular box and a Series 60, C_B=0.70, hull.     

Optimization of fishing vessels using a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm

A fishing boat hull is used as an example of how hull form optimization can be accomplished using a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA). The particular MOGA developed during this study allows automatic selection of a few Pareto Optimal results for examination by the designers while searching the complete Pareto Front. The optimization uses three performance indices for resistance, seakeeping and stability to modify the hull shape to obtain optimal hull offsets as well as optimal values for the principal parameters of length, beam and draft. The modification of the 148/1-B fishing boat hull, the parent hull form of the ?stanbul Technical University (?TÜ) series of fishing boats, is presented by first fixing the principal parameters and allowing the hull offsets to change, and secondly by simultaneously allowing variation of both the principal parameters and the hull offsets. Improvements in all three objectives were found. For further research the methodology can be modified to allow for the addition of other performance objectives, such as cost or specific mission objectives, as well as the use of enhanced performance prediction solvers. In addition, one or more hulls could be evaluated by experiment to validate the results of using this particular optimization approach.     

Seakeeping standard series for oblique seas (a synopsis)

The seakeeping performance in oblique seas for a series of 72 cruiser-stern hull forms has been evaluated analytically and is presented in a systematic way. The hull form series have been created by Loukakis and Chryssostomidis (1975) by extending the principal characteristics of the Series 60 to cover usual shipbuilding practice. In that work, however, only the seakeeping performance in head seas was presented. Recently, the seakeeping performance of the Extended Series 60 was re-evaluated for both head seas and oblique seas. The complete results are presented in tabular and graphical form as a function of the principal characteristics of the ship, the Froude number (including Fn=0, missing in the original series), the non-dimensional modal wave period and the heading angle in a separate NTUA report (Grigoropoulos et al., 1994). In the present paper, the results for one case are given in tabular form accompanied by graphical representation. They include: heave, pitch, bending moment amidships, added resistance, absolute vertical acceleration and relative vertical motion at the bow and the stern regions and relative vertical velocity at stations 2 and 4 where slamming is likely to occur.     

Experimental investigation of hydrodynamic force coefficients over AUV hull form

Extensive use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in oceanographic applications necessitates investigation into the hydrodynamic forces acting over an AUV hull form operating under deeply submerged condition. This paper presents a towing tank-based experimental study on forces and moment on AUV hull form in the vertical plane. The AUV hull form considered in the present program is a 1:2 model of the standard hull form Afterbody1. The present measurements were carried out at typical speeds of autonomous underwater vehicles (0.4-1.4 m/s) by varying pitch angles (0-15°). The hydrodynamic forces and moment are measured by an internally mounted multi-component strain gauge type balance. The measurements were used to study variation of axial, normal, drag, lift and pitching moment coefficients with Reynolds number (Re) and angle of attack. The measurements have also been used to validate results obtained from a CFD code that uses Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes equations (ANSYS™ Fluent). The axial and normal force coefficients are increased by 18% and 195%; drag, lift and pitching moment coefficients are increased by 90%, 182% and 297% on AUV hull form at α=15° and Re_v=3.65×10⁵. These results can give better idea for the efficient design of guidance and control systems for AUV.     

A new concept of a hull form to improve wave response characteristics for marine construction barges

The object of the new hull form is to provide a single hull which possesses long natural periods of roll and heave and has substantially reduced motion response amplitudes in very high sea states. Model tests and preliminary estimates indicated that the new hull form can be designed for roll and heave motions nearly equivalent to those of much larger semisubmersible units.All existing conventional marine construction barges have rectangular cross section hull. The new hull form consists of a system of upper side tanks and lower side tanks added onto a rectangular cross section hull. The upper tanks and lower tanks form longitudinal troughs on the port and starboard sides. Structural grillage of any open type is to connect the upper and lower tanks at the side of the vessel. Figure 1 indicates a profile and a typical transverse section of the new hull form. The new hull comprises the concept of reduced water plane area which is turn results in low transverse metacentric height and low tons per in. immersion. The novel features of combining low GM_T and low TPI with extremely heavy damping and added mass of the entrained water characteristics result in very long natural periods of roll and heave and considerably small rolling and heaving amplitudes in high sea states. The open side shell plating on the side of the vessel functions to dissipate wave energy at the side of the vessel which would have otherwise been transmitted to the vessel and caused the vessel to respond. This paper presents the conceptual foundation and outline of the new hull form. Model test results are presented and implemented. Also presented is the design philosophy.     

An optimization approach for fairing of ship hull forms

This paper presents a numerical fairing procedure to be used at the preliminary design stage to create high-quality ship hull form geometry. The procedure is based on a variational optimization approach in which a fairness measure related to the surface curvature is the objective function to be minimized subject to a set of geometric constraints to ensure that the final form has the required geometric characteristics. The optimization variables are selected as the control points of a B-spline surface representing the initial hull form. A nonlinear direct search technique is employed to solve the problem. The methodology is applied for typical ship forms to indicate that, provided that the designer can specify appropriate design objectives and geometric constraints, the methodology can produce alternative hull forms with significantly improved fairing characteristics. The choice of the fairness objective function is shown to have a crucial effect on the quality of the hull surface. Highly nonlinear exact fairness functionals yield surfaces of high quality at the expense of high-computerized effort.     

An inverse hull design approach in minimizing the ship wave

The Levenberg–Marquardt Method (LMM) and a panel code for solving the wave-making problem are utilized in an inverse hull design problem for minimizing the wave of ships. A typical catamaran is selected as the example ship for the present study. The hull form of the catamaran is described by the B-spline surface method so that the shape of the hull can be completely specified using only a small number of parameters (i.e. control points). The technique of parameter estimation for the inverse design problem is thus chosen. The LMM of parameter estimation, which is the combination of steepest descent and Newton’s methods, has been proven to be a powerful tool for the inverse shape design problem. For this reason it is adopted in the present study.In the present studies, the inverse hull design method can not only be applied to estimate the hull form based on the known wave data of the target ship but can also be applied to estimate the unknown hull form based on the reduced wave height. The optimal hull forms of minimizing wave for a typical catamaran in deep water at service speed and at the critical speed of shallow water are estimated, respectively. Moreover, a new hull form with the combining feature of the optimal hull forms for deep water and shallow water is performing well under both conditions. The numerical simulation indicates that the hull form designed by inverse hull design method can reduce the ship wave significantly in comparison with the original hull form.     

Joint modelling of wave spectral parameters for extreme sea states

Characterising the dependence between extremes of wave spectral parameters such as significant wave height (H_S) and spectral peak period (T_P) is important in understanding extreme ocean environments and in the design and assessment of marine structures. For example, it is known that mean values of wave periods tend to increase with increasing storm intensity. Here we seek to characterise joint dependence in a straightforward manner, accessible to the ocean engineering community, using a statistically sound approach.Many methods of multivariate extreme value analyses are based on models which assume implicitly that in some joint tail region each parameter is either independent of or asymptotically dependent on other parameters; yet in reality the dependence structure in general is neither of these. The underpinning assumption of multivariate regular variation restricts these methods to estimation of joint regions in which all parameters are extreme; but regions where only a subset of parameters are extreme can be equally important for design. The conditional approach of Heffernan and Tawn (2004), similar in spirit to that of Haver (1985) but with better theoretical foundation, overcomes these difficulties.We use the conditional approach to characterise the dependence structure of H_S and T_P. The key elements of the procedure are: (1) marginal modelling for all parameters, (2) transformation of data to a common standard Gumbel marginal form, (3) modelling dependence between data for extremes of pairs of parameters using a form of regression, (4) simulation of long return periods to estimate joint extremes. We demonstrate the approach in application to measured and hindcast data from the Northern North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the North West Shelf of Australia. We also illustrate the use of data re-sampling techniques such as bootstrapping to estimate the uncertainty in marginal and dependence models and accommodate this uncertainty in extreme quantile estimation.We discuss the current approach in the context of other approaches to multivariate extreme value estimation popular in the ocean engineering community.     

Numerical investigation on the hydrodynamic performance of fast SWATHs with optimum canted struts arrangements

Small Waterplane Area Twin Hulls (SWATHs) are known to have superior seakeeping performance but higher resistance compared to equivalent catamarans or mono-hulls. A way to improve their resistance characteristics is to use unconventional hull forms parametrically defined and optimized by CFD methods. This study builds on previous SWATH optimization studies proposing a comprehensive, systematic investigation on the effect of different shapes and canting angles of the struts. For the first time we demonstrate the importance of considering the shape of the strut that is fully parametrized in our study. The effect of the design speed on the best shape is addressed through a multi-objective optimization targeting the minimum total resistance at two very different speeds, namely the cruise and slow transfer speeds. Optimum hull shapes are discussed in terms of maximum resistance reduction, together with the predicted free waves patterns.     

适用于浅海油田的高速交通艇设计

研究设计了一艘适用于浅海油田的高速交通艇，该艇采用深V线型和在侧斜螺旋浆，设有主动式减摇鳍。实船航行表明该艇具有优良的耐波性。     

Prediction of added resistance of ships in waves

The prediction of the added resistance of ships in waves is a demanding, quasi-second-order seakeeping problem of high practical interest. In the present paper, a well established frequency domain 3D panel method and a new hybrid time domain Rankine source-Green function method of NTUA-SDL are used to solve the basic seakeeping problem and to calculate first order velocity potentials and the Kochin functions, as necessary for the calculation of the added resistance by Maruo's far-field method. A wide range of case studies for different hull forms (slender and bulky) was used to validate the applicability and accuracy of the implemented methods in practice and important conclusions regarding the efficiency of the investigated methods are drawn.     

Tissue distribution and kinetics of dissolved and nanoparticulate silver in Iceland scallop (Chlamys islandica)

The fast expansion of the global nanotechnology market entails a higher environmental and human exposure to nanomaterials. Silver nanoparticles (AgNP) are used for their antibacterial properties; however, their environmental fate is yet poorly understood. Iceland scallops (Chlamys islandica) were exposed for 12 h to three different silver forms, dissolved Ag(I) (Ag_diss), small (S-NP, ∅ = 10–20 nm) and large AgNP (L-NP, ∅ = 70–80 nm), labeled with ^110mAg, and bioaccumulation kinetics and tissue distribution using in vivo gamma counting and whole-body autoradiography were determined. All Ag forms were readily and rapidly accumulated. Elimination process was also fast and bi-exponential, with mean biological half-life ranging from 1.4 to 4.3 days and from 17 to 50 days for fast and slow compartments, respectively. Most of the radioactivity concentrated in the hepatopancreas. Ag_diss and S-NP tissue distributions were similar indicating a rapid dissolution of the latter in the tissues, contrarily to L-NP which appeared to form long lasting aggregates in the digestive system. Estimated steady-state bioconcentration factors (BCF), ranging between 2700 and 3800 ml g⁻¹ for dissolved and particulate silver forms, showed that C. islandica can accumulate significant quantities of Ag in a short time followed by an efficient depuration process.     

An automated computational method for planing hull form definition in concept design

This paper describes the development of a computer-based method for producing chined planing boat hull forms adequate to be applied in concept design. The method is based on a principle where the designer specifies a small set of critical parameters he/she wishes obtain or keep preserved and generates a complete hull form, without the traditional skilled recourse of giving stations point by point. From this set of parameters a detailed and faired drawing with offsets is generated very quickly. The method allows, in its execution mode, the flexibility to modify, adjust and enlarge the input set of parameters. The method was created to allow both (1) automated hull form definitions when integrated to an existing computer system and (2) quick but detailed preliminary calculations of stability, lift and drag, volumes and internal space allocations, sea-keeping estimates, etc., all with very reasonable precision. As application examples some planing boat hull forms are generated. Some are typical and others less usual. The later ones are defined to show the method's limits, in order to validate it.     

Seakeeping performance of fishing vessels in irregular waves

A study of the seakeeping performance of a set of fishing vessels is carried out aiming to identify the seakeeping criteria, and vessel conditions that limit the operability of the fishing vessels in certain sea states. Ship motions and derived responses are obtained in fully developed sea states using the transfer functions of the hull forms. Those responses are assessed against the prescribed values, for the chosen criteria, to determine the vessels operational conditions that might result in hazards or seasickness. For the purpose of this study, each fishing vessel is considered operating in sea states 5 and 6, with different Froude numbers and heading angles, and their short term responses are assessed against the most relevant criteria related with the absolute and relative motions, accelerations, slamming and green water on deck. The results obtained show that roll and pitch criteria are most critical for seakeeping performance, and there is a significant influence of the transverse metacentric height, GMt, and the location of the reference checking points in the seakeeping performance of these fishing vessels.