A Semi-Analytical Method for the PDFs of A Ship Rolling in Random Oblique Waves

The PDFs (probability density functions) and probability of a ship rolling under the random parametric and forced excitations were studied by a semi-analytical method. The rolling motion equation of the ship in random oblique waves was established. The righting arm obtained by the numerical simulation was approximately fitted by an analytical function. The irregular waves were decomposed into two Gauss stationary random processes, and the CARMA (2, 1) model was used to fit the spectral density function of parametric and forced excitations. The stochastic energy envelope averaging method was used to solve the PDFs and the probability. The validity of the semi-analytical method was verified by the Monte Carlo method. The C11 ship was taken as an example, and the influences of the system parameters on the PDFs and probability were analyzed. The results show that the probability of ship rolling is affected by the characteristic wave height, wave length, and the heading angle. In order to provide proper advice for the ship''s manoeuvring, the parametric excitations should be considered appropriately when the ship navigates in the oblique seas.     

On the parametric rolling of ships using a numerical simulation method

This paper has shown a numerical motion simulation method which can be employed to study on parametric rolling of ships in a seaway. The method takes account of the main nonlinear terms in the rolling equation which stabilize parametric rolling, including the nonlinear shape of the righting arm curve, nonlinear damping and cross coupling among all 6 degrees of freedom. For the heave, pitch, sway and yaw motions, the method uses response amplitude operators determined by means of the strip method, whereas the roll and surge motions of the ship are simulated, using nonlinear motion equations coupled with the other 4 degrees of freedom. For computing righting arms in seaways, Grim's effective wave concept is used. Using these transfer functions of effective wave together with the heave and pitch transfer functions, the mean ship immersion, its trim and the effective regular wave height are computed for every time step during the simulation. The righting arm is interpolated from tables, computed before starting the simulation, depending on these three quantities and the heel angle. The nonlinear damping moment and the effect of bilge keels are also taken into account. The numerical simulation tool has shown to be able to model the basic mechanism of parametric rolling motions. Some main characteristics of parametric rolling of ships in a seaway can be good reproduced by means of the method. Comprehensive parametric analyses on parametric rolling amplitude in regular waves have been carried out, with that the complicated parametric rolling phenomena can be understood better.     

Stochastic stability of tethered buoyant platforms

A moment method for analysing the stochastic stability of the surge motion of a tethered buoyant platform (TBP) in a random sea is examined. In the differential equation describing the surge motion the variation of tether tension caused by the vertical component of the wave forces is random-time dependent in form. The asymptotic moment behaviour of the solution is determined and approximated in terms of an integral equation. Under the assumption of a narrow band process imposed upon the random coefficient, the stability results are obtained with the aid of deterministic stability theory. The mean square stability is studied and criteria for stability are obtained in terms of the damping coefficient and the auto-correlation function of the random sea.     

A 3D fully coupled analysis of nonlinear sloshing and ship motion

This study investigates the coupling effects of six degrees of freedom in ship motion with fluid oscillation inside a three-dimensional rectangular container using a novel time domain simulation scheme. During the time marching, the tank-sloshing algorithm is coupled with the vessel-motion algorithm so that the influence of tank sloshing on vessel motions and vice versa can be assessed. Several factors influencing the dynamic behavior of tank–liquid system due to moving ship are also investigated. These factors include container parameters, environmental settings such as the significant wave height, current velocity as well as the direction of wind, wave and flow current acting on the ship. The nonlinear sloshing is studied using a finite element model whereas nonlinear ship motion is simulated using a hybrid marine control system. Computed roll response is compared with the existing results, showing fair agreement. Although the two hull forms and the sea states are not identical, the numerical result shows the same trend of the roll motion when the anti-rolling tanks are considered. Thus, the numerical approach presented in this paper is expected to be very useful and realistic in evaluating the coupling effects of nonlinear sloshing and 6-DOF ship motion.     

Parametric roll due to hull instantaneous volumetric changes and speed variations

Parametric roll of a containership in head sea condition has been studied in the paper. A time domain routine for GZ righting arm calculation based on exact underwater hull geometry has been implemented into a two-degree-of-freedom procedure for roll response calculation. The speed variation due to e.g. added resistance has been accounted for in the model by the surge velocity. The ship roll motion due to a regular wave critical for parametric roll occurrence has been simulated, as well as the ship roll response in a severe stochastic sea. The present method has been compared with other existing methods for parametric roll prediction.     

Design of passive anti-roll tanks for roll stabilization in the nonlinear range

The best way of reducing roll motion is by increasing roll damping. Bilge keels are the most common devices for increasing roll damping. If more control is required, anti-roll tanks and fins are used. Tanks have the advantage of being able to function when the ship is not underway. Our objective is to develop design procedures for passive tanks for roll reduction in rough seas. This paper focuses on the design of passive U-tube tanks. The tank-liquid equation of motion is integrated simultaneously with the six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) equations of the ship motion. The coupled set of equations is solved by using the Large Amplitude Motion Program ‘LAMP’, which is a three-dimensional time-domain simulation of the motion of ships in waves. The unstabilized and stabilized roll motions of a S60-70 ship with forward speed and beam waves have been analyzed. For high-amplitude waves, the unstabilized roll angle exhibits typical nonlinear phenomena: a shift in the resonance frequency, multi-valued responses, and jumps. The performance of a S60-70 ship with a passive tank is investigated in various sea states with different encounter wave directions. It is found that passive anti-roll tanks tuned in the linear or nonlinear ranges are very effective in reducing the roll motion in the nonlinear range. The effect of the tank damping, frequency, and mass on the tank performance is studied. Also, it is found that passive anti-roll tanks are very effective in reducing the roll motion for ships having a pitch frequency that is nearly twice the roll frequency in sea states 5 and 6.     

On the identification of ship coupled heave–pitch motions using neural networks

This paper outlines a procedure for the derivation of the differential equations describing the free response of a heaving and pitching ship from its stationary response to random waves. The coupled heave–pitch motion of a ship in random seas is modelled as a multi-dimensional Markov process. The partial differential equation describing the transition probability density function, known as the Fokker-Planck equation, for this process is derived. The Fokker-Planck equation is used to derive the random decrement equations for the coupled heave–pitch motion. The parameters in these equations are then identified using a neural network approach. The method is validated using numerical simulations and experimental results. The experimental data was obtained using an icebreaker ship model heaving and pitching in random waves. It is shown that the method produces good results when the system is lightly damped. An extension for using this method to identify couple heave–pitch motion in realistic seas is suggested.     

On the identification of ship coupled heave–pitch motions using neural networks

This paper outlines a procedure for the derivation of the differential equations describing the free response of a heaving and pitching ship from its stationary response to random waves. The coupled heave–pitch motion of a ship in random seas is modelled as a multi-dimensional Markov process. The partial differential equation describing the transition probability density function, known as the Fokker-Planck equation, for this process is derived. The Fokker-Planck equation is used to derive the random decrement equations for the coupled heave–pitch motion. The parameters in these equations are then identified using a neural network approach. The method is validated using numerical simulations and experimental results. The experimental data was obtained using an icebreaker ship model heaving and pitching in random waves. It is shown that the method produces good results when the system is lightly damped. An extension for using this method to identify couple heave–pitch motion in realistic seas is suggested.     

Estimation of survival probability for a ship in beam seas using the safe basin

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the nonlinear ship roll motion equation and the main parameters that induce ship capsizing in beam seas, estimate the survival probability of a ferry in random seas and to find out a risk assessment method for the ship’s intact stability. A single degree of freedom (1-DOF) dynamic system of ship rolling in beam seas is investigated and the nonlinear differential equation is solved in the time domain by the fourth order Runge-Kutta algorithm. The survival probability of a ferry in beam seas is investigated using the theory of “safe basin”. The survival probability is calculated by estimating erosion of “safe basin” during ship rolling motion by Monte Carlo simulations. From the results it can be concluded that the survival probability of a ship in beam sea condition can be predicted by combining Monte Carlo simulations and the theory of “safe basin”.     

Study on coupling effects of ship motion and sloshing

This study considers the coupling effects of ship motion and sloshing. The linear ship motion is solved using an impulse-response-function (IRF) method, while the nonlinear sloshing flow is simulated using a finite-difference method. The IRF method requires the frequency-domain solution prior to conversion to time domain, but the computational effort is much less than that of direct time-domain approaches. The developed scheme is verified by comparing the motion RAOs between the frequency-domain solution and the solution obtained by the IRF method. Furthermore, a soft-spring concept and linear roll damping are implemented to predict more realistic motions of surge, sway, yaw, and roll. For the simulation of sloshing flow in liquid tanks, a physics-based numerical approach adopted by Kim [2001. Numerical simulation of sloshing flows with impact load. Applied Ocean Research 23, 53–62] and Kim et al. [2004. Numerical study on slosh-induced impact pressures on three-dimensional prismatic tanks. Applied Ocean Research 26, 213–226] is applied. In particular, the present method focuses on the simulation of the global motion of sloshing flow, ignoring some local phenomena. The sloshing-induced forces and moments are added to wave-excitation forces and moments, and then the corresponding body motion is obtained. The developed schemes are applied for two problems: the sway motion of a box-type barge with rectangular tanks and the roll motion of a modified S175 hull with rectangular anti-rolling tank. Motion RAOs are compared with existing results, showing fair agreement. It is found that the nonlinearity of sloshing flow is very important in coupling analysis. Due to the nonlinearity of sloshing flow, ship motion shows a strong sensitivity to wave slope.     

Parameter identification of nonlinear roll motion equation for floating structures in irregular waves

In order to predict the roll motion of a floating structure in irregular waves accurately, it is crucial to estimate the unknown damping coefficients and restoring moment coefficients in the nonlinear roll motion equation. In this paper, a parameter identification method based on a combination of random decrement technique and support vector regression (SVR) is proposed to identify the coefficients in the roll motion equation of a floating structure by using the measured roll response in irregular waves. Case studies based on the simulation data and model test data respectively are designed to validate the applicability and validity of the identification method. Firstly, the roll motion of a vessel is simulated by using the known coefficients from literature, and the simulated data are used to identify the coefficients in the roll motion equation. The identified coefficients are compared with the known values to validate the applicability of the identification method. Then the roll motion is predicted by using the identified coefficients. The prediction results are compared with the simulated data, and good agreement is achieved. Secondly, the model test data of a FPSO are used to identify the coefficients in the roll motion equation. Then the random decrement signature of the roll motion is predicted by using the identified coefficients and compared with that obtained from the model test data, and satisfactory agreement is achieved. From this study, it is shown that the identification method can be effectively applied to identify the coefficients in the nonlinear roll motion equation in irregular waves.     

Numerical simulation of ship stability for dynamic environment

The prediction of ship stability during the early stages of design is very important from the point of vessel’s safety. Out of the six motions of a ship, the critical motion leading to capsize of a vessel is the rolling motion. In the present study, particular attention is paid to the performance of a ship in beam sea. The linear ship response in waves is evaluated using strip theory. Critical condition in the rolling motion of a ship is when it is subjected to synchronous beam waves. In this paper, a nonlinear approach has been tried to predict the roll response of a vessel. Various representations of damping and restoring terms found in the literature are investigated. A parametric investigation is undertaken to identify the effect of a number of key parameters like wave amplitude, wave frequency, metacentric height, etc.     

Stochastic inverse modeling of nonlinear roll damping moment of a ship

This work presents an application of stochastic inverse method for the determination of nonlinear roll damping moment of a ship at zero forward speed. Nonlinear roll damping moment was estimated from the measured dynamic responses through stochastic inverse model. It is shown that this method enables nonlinear characteristic of the roll damping to be estimated without any assumption on its form of nonlinearity, including its confidence intervals given noisy data. The accuracy and practicability were assessed with laboratory tests related to both free-decay and forced rolling motions. The estimation results of the nonlinear damping moment show good agreement in all cases.     

Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Ship Parametric Rolling in Regular Head Waves

Parametric rolling is one of five types of the ship stability failure modes as proposed by IMO. The periodic change of the metacentric height is often considered as the internal cause of this phenomenon. Parametric rolling is a complex nonlinear hydrodynamic problem, often accompanied by large amplitude vertical motions of ships. In recent years,the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes(RANS) equation simulations for viscous flows have made great progress in the field of ship seakeeping. In this paper, the parametric rolling for the C11 containership in regular waves is studied both experimentally and numerically. In the experiments, parametric rolling amplitudes at different drafts, forward speeds and wave steepnesses are analyzed. The differences in the steady amplitudes of parametric rolling are observed for two drafts. The effect of the incident wave steepness(or wave amplitude) is also studied, and this supports previous results obtained on limits of the stability for parametric rolling. In numerical simulations, the ship motions of parametric rolling are analyzed by use of the potential-flow and viscous-flow methods. In the viscousflow method, the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations are solved using the overset grid method. The numerical accuracies of the two methods at different wave steepnesses are also discussed.     

Stochastic simulations of ocean waves: An uncertainty quantification study

The primary objective of this study is to introduce a stochastic framework based on generalized polynomial chaos (gPC) for uncertainty quantification in numerical ocean wave simulations. The techniques we present can be easily extended to other numerical ocean simulation applications. We perform stochastic simulations using a relatively new numerical method to simulate the HISWA (Hindcasting Shallow Water Waves) laboratory experiment for directional near-shore wave propagation and induced currents in a shallow-water wave basin. We solve the phased-averaged equation with hybrid discretization based on discontinuous Galerkin projections, spectral elements, and Fourier expansions. We first validate the deterministic solver by comparing our simulation results against the HISWA experimental data as well as against the numerical model SWAN (Simulating Waves Nearshore). We then perform sensitivity analysis to assess the effects of the parametrized source terms, current field, and boundary conditions. We employ an efficient sparse-grid stochastic collocation method that can treat many uncertain parameters simultaneously. We find that the depth-induced wave-breaking coefficient is the most important parameter compared to other tunable parameters in the source terms. The current field is modeled as random process with large variation but it does not seem to have a significant effect. Uncertainty in the source terms does not influence significantly the region before the submerged breaker whereas uncertainty in the incoming boundary conditions does. Considering simultaneously the uncertainties from the source terms and boundary conditions, we obtain numerical error bars that contain almost all experimental data, hence identifying the proper range of parameters in the action balance equation.     

On the effectiveness of constant coefficients roll motion equation

As known, the rolling motion characteristics, amplitudes and accelerations, greatly influence the ability of a ship to operate and survive in bad weather. On the other hand, traditional computer codes for seakeeping calculations fail the forecasting of large amplitude rolling. There is a great need of using semi-empirical damping models and coefficients. This stresses the importance of campaigns of measurements as described in the paper, to get a deeper insight into the physical-mathematical modelling of the different contributions to rolling equation.Experimental tests on nonlinear rolling in a regular beam sea of a Ro-Ro ship model have been conducted by varying both the wave steepness and the wave frequency. The use of a parameter estimation technique, based on the least squares fitting of the stationary numerical solution of the nonlinear rolling motion differential equation, allowed to obtain informations on the damping model and on the linear and nonlinear damping coefficients. These exhibit a quite strong dependence on frequency that reduces the efficiency of constant coefficients rolling equation to simulate large amplitude nonlinear rolling. The results indicate that a good quality prediction model of nonlinear rolling cannot be based on constant coefficients time domain simulations. These can infact lead to incorrect estimates of rolling amplitudes even when the parameters have been obtained through high level parameter estimation procedures based on experimental data. The analysis indicates also a marked dependence of the effective wave slope coefficient on wave amplitude. The introduction of both these dependences on the rolling equation allows to reproduce the experimental results with great accuracy even at large amplitudes.     

An investigation into parametric roll resonance in regular waves using a partly non-linear numerical model

A partly non-linear time-domain numerical model is used for the prediction of parametric roll resonance in regular waves. The ship is assumed to be a system with four degrees of freedom, namely, sway, heave, roll and pitch. The non-linear incident wave and hydrostatic restoring forces/moments are evaluated considering the instantaneous wetted surface whereas the hydrodynamic forces and moments, including diffraction, are expressed in terms of convolution integrals based on the mean wetted surface. The model also accounts for non-potential roll damping expressed in an equivalent linearised form. Finally, the coupled equations of motion are solved in the time-domain referenced to a body fixed axis system.This method is applied to a range of hull forms, a post-Panamax C11 class containership, a transom stern Trawler and the ITTC-A1 containership, all travelling in regular waves. Obtained results are validated by comparison with numerical/experimental data available in the literature. A thorough investigation into the influence of the inclusion of sway motion is conducted. In addition, for the ITTC-A1 containership, an investigation is carried out into the influence of tuning the numerical model by modifying the numerical roll added inertia to match that obtained from roll decay curves.     

Using wavelet transforms to analyze nonlinear ship rolling and heave-roll coupling

The use of wavelet transforms is explored to investigate the nonlinear dynamical characteristics of ship roll and coupled heave-roll motion. The harmonic character, double period character and chaotic character are observed via a time–frequency window of the wavelet transform. Typical wave parameters in different stability regions are considered. Features such as restoring rolling, divergence rolling, steady state and chaotic responses of ship roll are obtained as well. The investigation in this paper not only highlights the feasibility of using wavelet transforms in the analysis of nonlinear dynamic characteristics of ship rolling in waves, but also shows how it could enhance the analysis abilities.     

The effect of nonlinear damping and restoring in ship rolling

Many researchers have studied a wide range of nonlinear equations of motion describing a ship rolling in waves. In this study, a form of nonlinear equation governing the motion of a rolling ship subjected to synchronous beam waves is suggested and solved by the generalized Duffing's method in the frequency domain. Various representations of damping and restoring terms found in the literature are investigated and their solutions are analyzed by the above-mentioned method. Comparative results of nonlinear roll responses are obtained for four distinct vessel types at resonance conditions which constitute the worst situation. The results indicate the importance of roll damping and restoring, when constructing a nonlinear roll model. An inappropriate selection of damping and restoring terms may lead to serious discrepancies with reality, especially in peak roll amplitudes.     

Calculation of a capsizing rate of a ship in stochastic beam seas

This study introduces a method of calculating a capsizing rate of a ship. The phenomenon ‘capsizing’ is described as a jump of local equilibrium point from that near the upright position of a ship to what describes the upside-down attitude of the capsized ship; the rate of occurrence of such jumps was calculated. The potential function corresponding to the roll restoring moment have two potential wells located at the roll displacement angle 0 and 180°, respectively. A nonlinear Fokker–Planck equation for the joint probability density function of roll angle and velocity was solved. The excitation to the ship was assumed to be a combination of a regular harmonic wave and a white noise process.