Performance characteristics of a conceptual ring-shaped spar-type VLFS with double-layered perforated-wall breakwater

A ring-shaped spar-type Very Large Floating Structure (VLFS) is proposed as an intermediate base for supporting deepwater resource exploitation far away from the coast line. The proposed VLFS is composed of eight rigidly connected deep-draft spar-type modules and an inside harbor. A double-layered perforated-wall breakwater is vertically attached to the VLFS and pierces through the water surface to attenuate the wave energy in the inside harbor. The hydrodynamic performance characteristics of the ring-shaped VLFS was experimentally evaluated in the present study, focusing on the motion responses, wave elevations, and wave run-ups. The natural periods of the motions in vertical plane were determined to be larger than 40 s, which is much larger than common wave periods. This enhanced the motion performance in vertical plane and afforded favorable habitation and operation condition on the VLFS. A large surge damping was induced by the vertical breakwater, which tended to significantly affect the surge and pitch motions, but had a negligible effect on the heave motion. The component frequencies of the wave elevations in the inside harbor and the wave run-ups were identical with those of the incident waves. The wave attenuation was frequency-dependent and effective for the common wave frequencies, with a smaller loss coefficient observed in higher sea state. The wave attenuation and wave run-ups tended to improve in the absence of the leeward walls.     

混合模块大型浮式结构系统耦合动力响应分析

针对具有天然岛礁庇护或人工庇护的温和海洋环境,提出了一种混合模块大型浮式结构系统,即水动力性能更优的半潜式模块作为内侧主模块,消波效果更优的箱式模块作为外侧浮式防波模块和波浪能发电模块.波浪能装置利用外侧箱式模块与内侧半潜式模块的相对纵摇运动进行发电.考虑模块间多体水动力耦合效应和连接器机械耦合效应,基于ANSYS-AQWA程序重点研究了典型海况下混合5模块串联浮式结构系统的动力响应特征.结果表明,外侧箱式模块和波浪能发电装置能有效减弱内侧半潜式主模块运动响应、连接器动力响应和系泊缆绳张力,并且提供一定的能源供给.所得研究成果可为模块化超大型浮式结构系统的防波—发电集成系统设计提供参考.     

Extracting energy while reducing hydroelastic responses of VLFS using a modular raft wec-type attachment

This paper presents the use of a modular raft Wave Energy Converter (WEC)-type attachment at the fore edge of a rectangular Very Large Floating Structure (VLFS) for extracting wave energy while reducing hydroelastic responses of the VLFS under wave action. The proposed modular attachment comprises multiple independent auxiliary pontoons (i.e. modules) that are connected to the fore edge of the VLFS with hinges and linear Power Take-Off (PTO) systems. For the hydroelastic analysis, the auxiliary pontoons and the VLFS are modelled by using the Mindlin plate theory while the linear wave theory is used for modelling the fluid motion. The analysis is performed in the frequency domain using the hybrid Finite Element-Boundary Element (FE-BE) method. Parametric studies are carried out to investigate the effects of pontoon length, PTO damping coefficient, gap between auxiliary pontoons, and incident wave angle on the power capture factor as well as reductions in the hydroelastic responses of the VLFS with the modular attachment. It is found that in oblique waves, the modular attachment comprising multiple narrow pontoons outperforms the corresponding rigid attachment that consists of a single wide pontoon with respect to the power capture factor and the reduction in the deflection of the VLFS. In addition, it is possible to have a considerable gap between pontoons without significantly compromising the effectiveness of the modular attachment.     

Hydroelastic Response Analysis of Mat-Like VLFS over A Plane Slope in Head Seas

1 .IntroductionIntheexploitationofoceanresourcesandintheutilizationofoceanspaces,verylargefloatingstructures (VLFS)suchasMega FloatinJapan (Isobe ,1 999)andMobileOffshoreBase (MOB)inUSA (Remmers ,1 999)playasignificantrole .However,owingtotheirlargesizesandrelativelylowbendingrigidities ,theirhydroelasticresponsesinwavesareofthemostconcern .ManystudieshavebeencarriedoutforthepredictionofthehydroelasticresponsesofVLFS′s (Kashiwagi,2 0 0 0 ;Cui,2 0 0 2 ) .However,inalmostallofthesestu…     

Oblique Wave-Induced Responses of A VLFS Edged with A Pair of Inclined Perforated Plates

This paper is concerned with the hydroelastic responses of a mat-like, rectangular very large floating structure (VLFS) edged with a pair of horizontal/inclined perforated anti-motion plates in the context of the direct coupling method. The updated Lagrangian formulae are applied to establish the equilibrium equations of the VLFS and the total potential formula is employed for fluids in the numerical model including the viscous effect of the perforated plates through the Darcy''s law. The hybrid finite element-boundary element (FE-BE) method is implemented to determine the response reduction of VLFS with attached perforated plates under various oblique incident waves. Also, the numerical solutions are validated against a series of experimental tests. The effectiveness of the attached perforated plates in reducing the deflections of the VLFS can be significantly improved by selecting the proper design parameters such as the porous parameter, submergence depth, plate width and inclination angle for the given sea conditions.     

Experimental study of wave loads on a small vehicle in close proximity to a large vessel

Operations involving the launch or recovery of a smaller vessel from a larger one are extremely dangerous in high sea states and, therefore, they are normally carried out in low to moderate sea states. However, this can be severely restrictive and in some situations, carrying out such operations in high sea states is unavoidable. Here we report on a detailed investigation of the interaction between two vessels of different size in order to characterise their hydrodynamic interaction under different conditions and to provide insight for operational purposes. Model experiments were conducted to investigate the hydrodynamic interaction between two vessels in close proximity in waves. Previous studies into this interaction have focused on two vessels with comparable size/displacement. This study focused on the interaction between vessels of very different sizes, a platform supply vessel and a lifeboat, at various separation distances between the two models and wave headings. It is found that the effect of the hydrodynamic interaction on the wave loads on the lifeboat model is substantial. The load responses show a strong non-linearity (high order harmonic components). In head waves, the effect of the hydrodynamic interaction on the wave loads is greater in the transverse modes (sway, roll and yaw) than in the longitudinal modes (surge, heave and pitch). The sheltering effects of the larger model on the lifeboat model were also evident from the experiments. The results of this investigation may be used to inform the planning of marine operations, such as the launch and recovery of a lifeboat or an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) from a mothership and the transfer of equipment or personnel between vessels. The data will also provide a useful resource for validation of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes and other numerical simulations, and can be used to better understand the limitations and potential widening of the operational weather windows and to ensure that operations are carried out safely.     

Experimental hydrodynamic investigation of a fixed offshore Oscillating Water Column device

Oscillating Water Column (OWC) is one of the pioneer devices in harnessing wave energy; however, it is not fully commercialized perhaps due to the complicated hydrodynamic behavior. Previous studies are significantly devoted to OWC devices located in nearshore and coastal regions where incident wave energy would experience dissipation more than offshore. In this paper, a 1:15 scaled fixed offshore OWC model is tested in a large towing tank of National Iranian Marine Laboratory. Wave spectrum shape effect on the efficiency of the OWC model is addressed. Moreover, the paper investigates the effects of the geometric and hydrodynamic factors on OWC device efficiency and uncovers new points in nonlinear interaction occurring inside the chamber; i.e. sloshing. The results indicate that shape of the spectrum inside the chamber is affected by the type of incident wave spectrum, especially for long waves. Pierson–Moskowitz spectrum leaded to higher efficiency rather than JONSWAP spectrum at longer incident wave periods. According to efficiency analysis, increasing wave height may lead to air leakage from the chamber followed by vortex generation, which is a reason for decreasing the efficiency of the OWC device. Furthermore, no shift in the resonant period of the OWC model, due to wave height increase, was observed at the opening ratios equal or smaller than 1.28%. Spectral analysis of water fluctuation inside the OWC chamber illustrates two modes of sloshing. The first mode can be seen at short period waves while the second mode is visible at long period waves. The sloshing modes approximately vanish by increasing draft value.     

应用比例边界有限元法求解狭缝对双箱水动力的影响

比例边界有限元法(SBFEM)是一种半解析数值分析的新方法,既融合了有限元法和边界元法的优点,又有其特有的优点。用该方法可求解有限水深下狭缝对双箱水动力作用的影响,为波浪与多浮体超大型结构的相互作用探索一些规律。整个计算域划分成2个无限子域和4个有限子域,并利用加权余量法在各个子域上推导了SBFEM的积分方程;计算了4个数值算例并与边界元等其它数值方法进行了比较,验证了该方法是一种用很少单元便能得到精确结果的高效方法。应用SBFEM对不同箱体宽度、不同狭缝宽度、不同吃水深度条件的双箱作了计算,得出了狭缝对双箱水动力干涉影响的一些规律,对超大型浮体水动力分析和结构设计具有一定的参考价值。     

Influence of Gaps Between Multiple Floating Bodies on Wave Forces

The present study aims to give general hints about hydrodynamic interactions for water wavediffraction on a super large floating structure composed of a large number of box-shaped modules withmany small gaps in between.And meanwhile,it also aims to seek for an effective way to take the gap influ-ence into consideration without numerical difficulties existing in conventional methods.An asymptotic ma-tching technique is exploited by virtue of the smallness of gaps.Formal potential solutions are establishedfor the near field around the gap ends and the far field away from gap ends,respectively,and theunknowns in those solutions are uniquely determined by asymptotic matching.The eigen-function expan-sion method is used for the outer far field and a series of pulsating sources at each gap end is introduced tosimulate the gap influence.Strong hydrodynamic interaction is observed and a new resonant phenomenon,the mechanism of which differs absolutely from any known ones,is revealed in the present study.Sharppea     

Evaluation of bending moments and shear forces at unit connections of very large floating structures using hydroelastic and rigid body analyses

This paper investigates the characteristics of bending moments, shear forces and stresses at unit connections of very large floating structures (VLFS) under wave loads. The responses of VLFS are calculated by solving multi-body motion equation considering hydroelasticity and connection stiffness. Hydroelastic responses are calculated by the direct method. Higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM) is used for fluid analysis and finite element method (FEM) is introduced for structural analysis. The equation of motion is modified to describe the unit connections by employing spring elements. Bending moments and shear forces at the connections are obtained from the dynamic equilibrium condition for pressures and inertia forces. Two types of VLFS units such as tandem arranged units and side-by-side arranged units are considered in the numerical examples. The influences of connection stiffness, wave frequency and heading angle on responses of VLFS are investigated through the numerical examples. Rigid body analysis along with hydroelastic analysis is also carried out in the numerical analysis and comparison of those two approaches is discussed.     

Solitary wave interactions with an array of two vertical cylinders

This paper addresses a numerical investigation of nonlinear waves interactions with an array of two surface-piercing vertical cylinders and the corresponding nonlinear hydrodynamic loads on each individual cylinder. The primary interest of this study is concentrated on the problem of three-dimensional scattering of solitary waves by cylinder arrays and the nonlinear interactions between scattered waves. The theoretical model adopted for simulation is the generalized Boussinesq two-equation model. The boundary-fitted coordinate transformation and multiple-grid technique are utilized here to simplify the computation domain and to facilitate the applications of the boundary conditions on the cylinder surfaces. The velocity potential, free-surface elevation and subsequent evolution of the scattered wave field are numerically evaluated. The hydrodynamic forces on each cylinder during wave impact are also determined. A study of the sheltering effect by the neighboring structures on wave loads is conducted. It is found that the presence of the neighboring cylinder has shown significant influence on the wave loads and the scattering of the primary incident waves. For two transversely arranged cylinders, the transverse force coefficient increases as the separation distance decreases.     

三锚系大型浮标运动响应特性数值研究

以三锚系浮标系统为研究对象,基于AQWA与OrcaFlex软件开展了三锚系大型浮标系统运动响应特性数值模拟研究。对直径10 m的浮标结构在波浪荷载下的水动力特性进行研究,校核了浮标的初稳性和大倾角稳性特征,计算分析了浮标的附加质量、辐射阻尼、运动响应幅值算子RAO等水动力参数,阐明了不同风、浪、流工况下三锚系浮标与辅助浮筒的运动响应特性,揭示了浮标三锚链导缆孔处锚泊张力随入射角度、波高和周期等的变化规律。研究结果表明：该浮标稳性和随波性能较好。与无浮筒三锚系浮标相比,带辅助浮筒的三锚系浮标系统的运动响应和锚泊张力减小,随着波高和周期增大,三锚系浮标系泊锚链的极端张力值逐渐增大,尤其是在极端海况下,迎浪向锚链极端张力急剧增大。     

Diffraction–radiation of multiple floating structures in directional waves

The dynamics of multiple floating structures have been studied using the finite element method. The emphasis is on the hydrodynamic behaviour of multiple bodies under a multi-directional wave field. A two-dimensional numerical model has been adopted to evaluate hydrodynamic coefficients and forces in an oblique wave field. The responses in sway, heave and roll modes are reported. The linear filter technique is then used to extrapolate the responses under directional waves. The effect of mean wave direction and directional homogeneity on the hydrodynamic behaviour of the structure is studied. Based on the present study, it is found that the two-dimensional model is applicable to investigate the wave-structure interaction problems of the type herein considered.     

2-D numerical analysis of near-field flow at low-crested permeable breakwaters

This paper describes the capability of a numerical model named COrnell BReaking waves And Structures (COBRAS) [Lin, P., Liu, P.L.-F., 1998. A numerical study of breaking waves in the surf zone. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 359, 239–264; Liu, P.L.-F., Lin, P., Chang, K.A., Sakakiyama, T., 1999. Numerical modeling of wave interaction with porous structures. Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering 125, 322–330, Liu, P.L.-F., Lin, P., Hsu, T., Chang, K., Losada, I.J., Vidal, C., Sakakiyama, T., 2000. A Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equation model for nonlinear water wave and structure interactions. Proc. Coastal Structures '99, 169–174] based on the Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations to simulate the most relevant hydrodynamic near-field processes that take place in the interaction between waves and low-crested breakwaters. The model considers wave reflection, transmission, overtopping and breaking due to transient nonlinear waves including turbulence in the fluid domain and in the permeable regions for any kind of geometry and number of layers. Small-scale laboratory tests were conducted in order to validate the model, with different wave conditions and breakwater configurations. In the present study, regular waves of different heights and periods impinging on a wide-crested structure are considered. Three different water depths were tested in order to examine the influence of the structure freeboard. The experimental set-up includes a flow recirculation system aimed at preventing water piling-up at the lee of the breakwater due to overtopping. The applicability and validity of the model are examined by comparing the results of the numerical computations with experimental data. The model is proved to simulate with a high degree of agreement all the studied magnitudes, free surface displacement, pressure inside the porous structure and velocity field. The results obtained show that this model represents a substantial improvement in the numerical modelling of low-crested structures (LCS) since it includes many processes neglected previously by existing models. The information provided by the model can be useful to analyse structure functionality, structure stability, scour and many other hydrodynamic processes of interest.     

A Study on Hydroelastic Response of Box-Type Very Large Floating Structures

The application of very large floating structure (VLFS) to the utilization of ocean space and exploitation of ocean resources has become one of the issues of great interest in international ocean engineering field. Owing to the advantage of simplicity in structure and low cost of construction and maintenance, box-type VLFS can be used in the calm water area near the coast as the structure configuration of floating airport. In this paper, a 3D linear hydroelastic theory is used to study the dynamic response of box-type VLFS in sinusoidal regular waves. A beam model and a 3D FEM model are respectively employed to describe the dynamic characteristics of the box-type structure in vacuum. A hydrodynamic model (3D potential theory of flexible body) is applied to investigate the effect of different dry models on the hydroelastic response of box-type structure. Based on the calculation of hydroelastic response in regular waves, the rigid body motion displacement, flexible deflection, and the short term and long     

The analysis of tandem hull vessel motion in waves

This paper attempts to provide a better understanding of the hydrodynamic behavior of a tandem hull form in a floating production platform application where high deck payload capacity and low wave induced motions of this vessel are primary design goals. A simplified hydrodynamic analysis and a more representative radiation and diffraction theory based hydrodynamic analysis are used for wave induced forces and motions. The analysis results are compared with model test results to deduce principal features of these special purpose hull configurations. The motion responses in different wave headings evaluated from the complicated diffraction analysis are compared and discussed in some detail.     

High-resolution field measurements and numerical modelling of intra-wave sediment suspension on plane beds under shoaling waves

Intra-wave sediment suspension is examined using high-resolution field measurements and numerical hydrodynamic and sediment models within 120 mm of a plane seabed under natural asymmetric waves. The detailed measurements of suspended sediment concentration (at 5 mm vertical resolution and at 4 Hz) showed two or three entrainment bursts around peak flow under the wave crest and another at flow reversal during the decelerating phase. At flow reversal, the mixing length was found to be approximately double the value attained at peak flow under the crest. To examine the cause of multiple suspension peaks and increased diffusion at flow reversal, a numerical “side-view” hydrodynamic model was developed to reproduce near-bed wave-induced orbital currents. Predicted currents at the bed and above the wave boundary layer were oppositely directed around flow reversal and this effect became more pronounced with increasing wave asymmetry. When the predicted orbital currents and an enhanced eddy diffusivity during periods of oppositely directed flows were applied in a Lagrangian numerical sediment transport model, unprecedented and extremely close predictions of the measured instantaneous concentrations were obtained. The numerical models were simplified to incorporate only the essential parameters and, by simulating at short time scales, empirical time-averaged parameterisations were not required. Key factors in the sediment model were fall velocities of the full grain size distribution, diffusion, separation of entrainment from settlement, and non-constant, but vertically uniform, eddy diffusivity. Over the plane bed, sediment convection by wave orbital vertical currents was found to have no significant influence on the results.     

Experimental and Numerical Study on the Hydrodynamic Characteristics of Solitary Waves Passing Over A Submerged Breakwater

In this study, solitary waves passing over a submerged breakwater are investigated both experimentally and numerically. A total of 9 experimental conditions are carried out, including different incident wave heights and water depths. Numerical simulations are performed using a high-order finite-difference model solving Navier–Stokes (N–S) equations. The predicted water wave elevation, velocity and pressure show good agreement with experimental data, verifying the accuracy and capacity of the numerical model. Furthermore, parametric studies are conducted by numerical modelling to examine the effects of the geometrical features of submerged dike on hydrodynamic characteristics around the breakwater.     

潜堤后高阶自由谐波的研究

基于高阶边界元方法的完全非线性数值水槽模型模拟潜堤地形上波浪的传播变形,通过与实验值进行比较,考察数学模型的正确性.采用两点法分离得到堤后高倍频自由波来研究入射波参数、水深对堤后高倍频自由波的影响.研究发现:基频波、二阶和三阶自由波幅值分别与入射波波幅成线性、二次和三次函数关系,基频波幅值基本不随波浪周期变化,而二阶和...     

Wave runup on a concentric twin perforated circular cylinder

The regular wave interaction with a twin concentric porous circular cylinder system consisting of an inner impermeable cylinder and an outer perforated cylinder was studied through physical model and numerical model studies. The experiments were carried out on the twin concentric cylinder model in a wave flume to study the wave runup and rundown at the leading and trailing edges of the perforated cylinder. It was found that the maximum wave runup on the perforated cylinder is almost same as the incident wave height. The experimental results were used to develop the predictive formulae for the wave runup and rundown on the perforated cylinder, which can be easily used for design applications. The wave runup profiles around the perforated cylinder for different values of ka and porosities were studied numerically using Green's Identity Method. The results of the numerical study are presented and compared with the experimental measurements.