“Batfish” a depth controllable towed body for collecting oceanographic data

“Batfish” is a streamlined vehicle developed to house fast-responding oceanographic sensors. It is towed behind a ship or small vessel and its depth is controlled from the vessel by a manually or automatically produced command signal. Variable-angle wings permit the vehicle to be lowered and a novel control surface, which eliminates the need for heavy ballast, assures lateral stability. There are two models: the standard and the wide-wing Batfish. The standard Batfish has collected temperature and conductivity data at depths of up to 200 m when towed at 10–25 km/hr, and the wide-wing Batfish at depths to 400 m when towed at 10–16km/hr.     

The optimum dimensions for a long-range, autonomous, deep-diving, underwater vehicle for oceanographic research

From the results of a parameter optimization process based on a “minimum feasible volume” criterion, it is shown that the optimum shape for a transatlantic, deep-diving, autonomous submersible is a “low drag” hull shape with a displaced volume of 4.4 m³, a length of 5.97 m and a maximum diameter of 1.33 m. Calculations show that a vehicle of these dimensions, travelling in a minimum drag “cruise” configuration at a depth of 3000 m, say, and at a velocity of 2.5 m/sec could have a maximum range of 7000 km provided the “hotel” power consumption is kept low.     

Dynamic analysis of a vertical plate exposed to breaking wave impact

From the experimental studies in recent years, it has become known that when a wave breaks directly on a vertical faced coastal structure, high magnitude impact pressures are produced. The theoretical and experimental studies show that the dynamic response of such structures under wave impact loading is closely dependent on the magnitude and duration of the load history. The dynamic analysis and design of a coastal structure can be succeeded provided the design load history for the wave impact is available. Since these types of data are very scarce, it is much more convenient to follow a method which is based on static analysis for the dynamic design procedure. Therefore, to facilitate the dynamic design of a vertical plate that is exposed to breaking wave impact, a multiplication factor called “dynamic magnification factor” is herein presented which is defined as the ratio of the maximum value of the dynamic response to that found by static analysis. The computational results of the present study show that the dynamic magnification factor is a useful ratio to transfer the results of static analysis to the dynamic design of a coastal plate for the maximum impact pressure conditions of p_max/γH₀≤18.     

Path following control system for a tanker ship model

A two-dimensional path following control system for autonomous marine surface vessels is presented. The guidance system is obtained through a way-point guidance scheme based on line-of-sight projection algorithm and the speed controller is achieved through state feedback linearization. A new approach concerning the calculation of a dynamic line-of-sight vector norm is presented which main idea is to improve the speed of the convergence of the vehicle to the desired path. The results obtained are compared with the traditional line-of-sight scheme. It is intended that the complete system will be tested and implemented in a model of the “Esso Osaka” tanker. The results of simulations are presented here showing the effectiveness of the system aiming in to be robust enough to perform tests either in tanks or lakes.     

An experimental method for determining the frequency-dependent added mass and added mass moment of inertia for a floating body in heave and pitch motions

Most of the existing relevant materials have been obtained from experiments, in which evaluating the added mass at the resonant frequency corresponding to the peak of a frequency-response curve obtained from the “forced” vibration analysis is the most popular technique. In this paper, a simple experimental method was presented where the “free” vibration responses instead of the “forced” ones were used to determine the values of m_ah and I_ap. The main part of the experimental system is composed of a floating body (model) and a spring–shaft shaker. The “free” vibration of this main part was induced by imposing on it an initial displacement (and/or an initial velocity), and from the time histories of displacements information such as the “damped” natural frequencies, damping ratios, sectional added mass coefficients (C_V and C_P) were obtained. Since the displacements of the spring–shaft shaker are “translational” and those of the floating body due to pitch motions are “angular”, a technique for the transformation between the associated parameters of the two components of the main part was presented.     

Forced vibration analysis of an offshore tower carrying an eccentric tip mass with rotary inertia due to support excitation

Dynamic responses of structures due to earthquake excitation are the important problems in engineering, thus, the information concerned is plenty. However, most of the literature is relating to the discrete methods, particularly to the finite element method (FEM), and the one relating to the method combining both the “continuous” and “discrete” models is rare. The objective of this paper is to provide some information in this respect. First, the analytical solution for the natural frequencies and normal mode shapes of a “continuous” tower, without contacting water (or “dry” tower), carrying an eccentric tip mass possessing rotary inertia is determined. Next, the partial differential equation of motion for the forced vibration of the tower, contacting water (or “wet” tower), subjected to support excitation is transformed into a matrix equation by using the last natural frequencies and normal modes shape of the freely vibrating dry tower. Finally, the numerical integration method is used to solve the matrix equation to yield the seismic response of the wet tower. In theory, the mode superposition method is correct only if the total number of modes considered approaches infinity, however, numerical results of this paper reveal that superposition of only the lowest six modes will yield excellent results to be very close to the corresponding ones obtained from the conventional FEM. For this reason, the CPU time required by the presented approach is less than 5% of that required by the conventional FEM.     

Dynamic analysis of vehicle–deck interactions

This paper presents the review and studies at various levels of problems concerning the authors’ previous research on the dynamics of vehicle–deck interactions. The various levels of study include the dynamic structural behavior of vehicle–deck systems, vehicle vibrations, damping effects of vehicles on structural systems, dynamic interactions between tire and deck surface, and vehicle securing on decks during ship motions, etc. The study includes analytical, numerical and experimental analysis. Practical problems encountered by Ro–Ro ship designers are addressed by discussing those analysis. It is shown that influences from the dynamics of vehicle–deck interactions are relevant to a number of aspects of issues, such as the excitation frequency range, how detailed information of the structural system response is required, the structure characteristics, and positions and orientations of vehicles on decks, etc. The study contributes to the knowledge for the naval architect and vehicle engineer on how significant the dynamics of vehicle–deck interactions are when dealing with relevant problems.     

The discrete methods for free vibration analyses of an immersed beam carrying an eccentric tip mass with rotary inertia

In this paper, a beam without contact with water is called the “dry” beam and the one in contact with water is called the “wet” beam. For a partially (or completely) immersed uniform beam carrying an eccentric tip mass possessing rotary inertia, the conventional analytical (closed-form) solution is achieved by considering the inertial forces and moments of the tip mass and rotary inertia as the boundary conditions at the tip end of the beam. However, it has been found that the approximate solution for the last problem may be achieved by two techniques: Method 1 and Method 2. In Method 1, the basic concept is the same as the conventional analytical method; but in Method 2, the tip end of the beam is considered as a free end, while the inertial forces and moments induced by the tip mass and rotary inertia are considered as the external loads applied at the tip end of the beam. The main differences between the formulation of Method 1 and that of Method 2 are: In Method 1, the “normal” shapes of the “dry” beam are functions of the frequency-dependent boundary conditions but the external loads at the tip end are equal to zero; On the contrary, in Method 2, the “normal” mode shapes of the “dry” beam are determined based on the zero boundary conditions at the tip end of the beam but the external loads at the tip end due to the inertial effects of the tip mass and rotary inertia must be taken into consideration for the free vibration analysis of the “wet” beam. Numerical results reveal that the approximate solution obtained from Method 2 are very close to that from Method 1 if the tip mass moment of inertia is negligible. Besides, the two approximate solutions are also very close to the associated analytical (closed-form) solution or the finite element solution. In general, it is hoped that there exist several methods for tackling the same problem so that one may have more choices to incorporate with the specified cases. It is believed that the two approximate methods presented in this paper will be significant from this point of view.     

The differences between a wing and a planing plate in two-dimensional flow

The normal force coefficient on a flat planing surface having arbitrary heave and pitch motion in two-dimensional flow is compared with the lift coefficient of a thin wing in an infinite fluid. Despite the totally different derivations, they are found to be identical (at large Froude numbers and low trim angles and allowing for the wing's interaction with twice as much fluid) at low reduced frequencies. For higher frequency motions, the wing's angle of attack induced lift and its pitch and heave damping are less than those of a planing surface, but the acceleration terms remain identical. The differences at the higher reduced frequencies are due to the fact that, in invisad irrotational flow, the planning plate cannot leave a vortex wake, whereas a wing does.It seems to follow that the “virtual mass” planing hull analysis can be applied to “quasi-static” problems involving wings and bodies in an infinite fluid without the slenderness restriction originally imposed by Jones (1946). Certainly, it is remarkable that the so called “quasi-steady” forces on a two-dimensional wing can be obtained in a few lines of elementary analysis. On the other hand, the method fails entirely when used to compute the pitching moment on a two-dimensional plate, even though it has been found to give good results for the three-dimensional case (Payne, 1981c).This work is offered as a very incomplete study of an intriguing relationship between two very different bodies of analysis. Much more work will need to be done before the relationship between the two approaches will be fully understood.     

Sensitivity of AUV response to variations in hydrodynamic parameters

The sensitivity of the response of a typical AUV to changes in hydrodynamic parameters is examined. The analysis is primarily performed using a computer model of an axi-symmetric vehicle typical of many AUVs in service today. The vehicle used is the Canadian Self-Contained Off-the-shelf Underwater Testbed (C-SCOUT), designed and built by graduate and work term students. The fully nonlinear computer model is based on Newton–Euler equations of motion, and uses the component build-up method to describe the excitation forces. The hydrodynamic parameters are varied in a series of simulations with the computer model; the response being analyzed for specific performance indicators.     

Inventory of nonvolatile fatty acids and hydrocarbons in the oceans

A survey of the distribution of nonvolatile fatty acids and hydrocarbons in the oceans is given. The results represent more a “feel” from the literature rather than a mathematical analysis and are given in Table III. Fatty acid concentration appears to show a greater variation, presumably because they are more prone to biological influences than the hydrocarbons.     

Recent developments in “added-mass” planing theory

The results of several recent isolated investigations in planing theory are consolidated in this paper, together with new insights generated by a recent numerical solution of the vertically impacting wedge problem by Zhao and Faltinsen [(1992), Water entry of two-dimensional bodies. J. Fluid Mech. 246, 593–612]. As a result, in contrast to some earlier studies, it is found that the “wetted width” associated with the added mass is not that of the intersection of the wedge with the undisturbed water surface, but the wetted width of the splashed-up water, as originally proposed by Wagner [(1932), Uber Stoss-und Gleitvorgange an der Oberflache von Flussig-Keiten, Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik, Band 12, Heft 4 (August)]. However, the splash-up ratio is not the value of (π/2–1) which he proposed, but a value which decreases with increasing deadrise, originally proposed in the late-1940s by Pierson (“Pierson's hypothesis” in the paper). For 30° deadrise, for example, Pierson's splash-up ratio is two-thirds that of Wagner's.The new equations are employed to determine the increase in the “added mass” of prismatic hull sections due to chine immersion, using experimental data. If m_o^′ is the added amss of the hull section whose chines are just wetted, Payne [(1988), Design of High-speed Boats. Volume 1: Planing. Fishergate, Inc., Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.A.] postulated that the increase in added mass due to a chine submergence (z_c) would be

where b is the chine beam and k is a constant which Payne [(1988), Design of High-speed Boats. Volume 1: Planing. Fishergate, Inc., Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.A.] gave as .The present analysis includes the “one-sided flow” correction introduced in Payne [(1990), Planing and impacting forces at large trim angels. Ocean Engng 17, 201–234]. Partly for that reason and partly because of the more precise analysis of the experimental data, the present paper revises the value to k = 2 for wetted length to beam ratios normally employed. For deadrise angles in excess of 40° and wetted keel to beam ratios in excess of 2.0, there is some evidence that k < 2.0.The revised theoretical formulation is compared with eight different sets of experimental data for flat plate and prismatic hull forms and is found to be in excellent agreement when the speed is high enough for “dynamic suction” (a loss of buoyancy at low speeds and low wetted lenghts) to be unimportant. This is true for “chines-dry” operation with deadrise angles up to 50° and chines-wet operation at length to beam ratios far in excess of the most extreme conventional practice.The research involved in performing this analysis led to the realization that different towing tanks measure different wetted chine lengths for the same hulls and test conditions. Some consistently measure more splash-up than “theory” (based on Pierson's splash-up hypothesis) predicts and others measure somewhat less than the theory. Some examples are given in Appendix B. The reason for this is not understood.     

A rational approach to intact ship stability assessment

In this study, asymptotic and total stability of the non-linear free and forced pure rolling motions of a ship are investigated. A ship performing a rolling motion is taken as a dynamical system. Lyapunov's direct method is employed in the analysis. By generating a time-invariant Lyapunov function, conditions and the domain of asymptotic stability are obtained for free rolling motion. Results of the work on “boundedness” and “uniform boundedness” of the solutions of the equation of forced rolling motion, done by Özkan (1977), that is, conditions of total (practical) stability and its domain in the phase-plane are given and illustrated.     

Seakeeping performance of a containment boom section in random waves and currents

The seakeeping characteristics of various boom geometries in irregular waves and currents are investigated. The response of a floating boom section on the open sea is a function of a number of parameters, such as boom geometry, distribution of mass, buoyancy/weight ratio, and wave and current characteristics. To understand the relationship between these design parameters more clearly, a series of regular and irregular wave tests were conducted with six different 1:4 scale models for three current velocities and six different wave conditions. To simplify the problem, only rigid boom sections consisting of a buoyancy cylinder and vertical skirt were used. In parallel with this experimental program, a numerical model for the responses of two-dimensional floating boom sections in small-amplitude waves is also developed. The numerical results are compared with our large-scale experimental results. The boom effectiveness on the open sea is evaluated based on the concept of “effective draft” and “effective freeboard” assuming that drainage and oversplashing failures are the prime mechanisms of containment failure. Using the present results, a guideline for the optimum design/selection of future booms is developed.     

Multi-vessel seakeeping computations with linear potential theory

The wave-induced motion of two vessels in close proximity is studied using traditional two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) boundary element methods. Added mass, damping, and the behavior of the free surface between the vessels are examined in some detail. As expected based on previous work, the response of the water between the vessels is found to have a profound effect on the hydrodynamic forces. At “critical frequencies” corresponding to standing waves between the hulls, the hydrodynamic forces undergo significant drastic changes. The 2D and 3D results are compared, and the effects of a skew angle between the vessels are examined. Some of the consequences of the behavior at the critical frequencies for simulations in the time domain are examined, the most significant of which is a very lightly damped impulse response.     

A new view of near-shore dynamics based on observations from HF Radar

Since 1984 the OSCR HF Radar system has been used in over 50 deployments to measure near-shore surface currents for both scientific and engineering applications. The enhanced scope, resolution and accuracy of these measurements have yielded new insights into the tidal, wind and density driven dynamics of the near-shore zone.Tidal current ellipses obtained from these radar measurements have been shown to be in good aggrement with values calculated by numerical models both for the predominant constituents and also for higher harmonics. Coherent patterns of wind-forced currents ahve been determined with strong evidence of a “slab-like” surface response. In one deployment, with offshore winds blowing over relatively deep water, this “slab” rotated clockwise at near-inertial frequency. Strong (up to 20cm s⁻¹), persistent surface residual currents are commonly observed, these are almost certainly generated by (small) horizontal density gradients. These observed surface residuals provide ideal data for rigorous testing of 3-D numerical models.With a threatened rise in sea level, HF Radar is well-suited for observing the expected changes in the dynamics of near-shore regions. Continuing development of these radar systems offers exciting prospects of remote sensing of both surface waves and currents. Future applications may extend beyond the near-shore region to measurements along the shelf-edge, in oceanic gyres and for “beach-processes”.     

Total (practical) stability of ships

In this paper the “total (practical) stability” concept is introduced to nonlinear forced rolling motion of a ship. This is achieved by employing “boundedness” and “Lyapunov's function” approach. In this respect two new theorems are proved and conditions and domain of Practical Stability are evaluated. The Paper also contains a critical review of the present status of international intact ship stability regulations. A qualitative discussion of oscillatory rolling motion and the capsizing phenomena is presented.     

Transient effects in wave-current boundary layer flow

Previous studies of combined wave and current bottom boundary layer flow have concentrated on the final converged state of the flow following the addition of waves to a current. While this final state is of primary interest to modellers and engineers, it pre-supposes that such a state is actually attained in reality, and this may not always be the case. In addition, it overlooks the interesting and complicated transient effects which occur as a wave-current flow evolves from one state to another. The present study concentrates attention on the transient effects predicted by a “one-equation” turbulence closure model. Results of case studies are presented in which waves are superimposed co-linearly on a current (“forward problem”), and are then removed from the converged wave-current flow (“backward problem”). Two formulations of the “forward” and “backward” problems are discussed. In the first the steady component of the pressure gradient driving the mean flow is held constant throughout, and in the second the steady component of the mass flux is held constant. In each case the detailed evolution of the profiles of mean velocity, turbulent energy, mixing length, eddy viscosity and shear stress are discussed. More generally, the question of the convergence timescale of a combined wave-current flow is considered, and a convergence criterion is proposed.     

Regime shifts: Can ecological theory illuminate the mechanisms?

“Regime shifts” are considered here to be low-frequency, high-amplitude changes in oceanic conditions that may be especially pronounced in biological variables and propagate through several trophic levels. Three different types of regime shift (smooth, abrupt and discontinuous) are identified on the basis of different patterns in the relationship between the response of an ecosystem variable (usually biotic) and some external forcing or condition (control variable). The smooth regime shift is represented by a quasi-linear relationship between the response and control variables. The abrupt regime shift exhibits a nonlinear relationship between the response and control variables, and the discontinuous regime shift is characterized by the trajectory of the response variable differing when the forcing variable increases compared to when it decreases (i.e., the occurrence of alternative “stable” states). Most often, oceanic regime shifts are identified from time series of biotic variables (often commercial fish), but this approach does not allow the identification of discontinuous regime shifts. Recognizing discontinuous regime shifts is, however, particularly important as evidence from terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems suggests that such regime shifts may not be immediately reversible. Based on a review of various generic classes of mathematical models, we conclude that regime shifts arise from the interaction between population processes and external forcing variables. The shift between ecosystem states can be caused by gradual, cumulative changes in the forcing variable(s) or it can be triggered by acute disturbances, either anthropogenic or natural. A protocol for diagnosing the type of regime shift encountered is described and applied to a data set on Georges Bank haddock, from which it is concluded that a discontinuous regime shift in the abundance of haddock may have occurred. It is acknowledged that few, if any, marine data are available to confirm the occurrence of discontinuous regime shifts in the ocean. Nevertheless, we argue that there is good theoretical evidence for their occurrence as well as some anecdotal evidence from data collection campaigns and that the possibility of their occurrence should be recognized in the development of natural resource management strategies.     

Study on the dynamic characteristic of a U-type tuned liquid damper

By means of Lagrange's equation, the “coupled” equations of motion for a horizontal plate carrying a U-type tuned liquid damper (TLD) are derived. The “uncoupled” equations of motion for the liquid (in the TLD) and the structural system are then obtained by decoupling the “coupled” ones. Unlike the existing literature to indirectly determine the natural frequencies of a damped vibrating system by using the resonant method, the “complex” eigenvalues of the coupled damped system are obtained directly from the associated eigenvalue equations. Besides, the pressure intensities in the two air chambers and the sizes of the two vertical tanks together with the horizontal conduit are arbitrary in the formulation of this paper. The influence of some key parameters of the TLD on the dynamic responses of the structural system is studied.