Wave-Current Forces on Vertical Cylinders in Side-by-Side Arrangement for Irregular Waves Combined With Opposing Current

- The wave-current forces on vertical piles in side-by-side arrangement induced by irregular waves with opposing current are investigated experimentally in this paper. The characteristics in both time and frequency domain of in-line, lift and resultant forces are analyzed. The grouping effect coefficients of inline, lift and resultant forces on piles related to KC number and relative spacing parameters are given. These results are compared with those in the case of irregular waves combined with following currents. It is found that the results in these two cases are quite different. The range of KC number tested is 10- 60, the range of Reynolds number is (0.55-3.43) ×104.     

Semi-Probabilistic Evaluation of System Redundancy for Existing Offshore Structures

In this paper, a new definition of structure system redundancy is proposed in view of the various measures for structure redundancy. By introducing the terms of structure system failure at the mechanism level and equivalent reliability index, the safety for existing offshore platforms can be evaluated by the semi-probabilistic method presented in this paper. Some numerical examples are given and satisfactory results have been obtained.     

Wave Loads and Protective Techniques of An On-Shore Wave Power Device

In this paper, the extreme wave loads on an on-shore wave power device are investigated. First, boundary element method is applied to solve the three dimensional potential problem based on the small amplitude wave assumption. Then the motion of the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) inside the device and its laods on the device are calculated in time domain. Several protective techniques often applied are simulated by changing the constraint of the upper end of the chamber of the device. Numerical results are used to judge the effectiveness of these techniques. The investigation shows that damping can not effectively restrain the motion of OWC when the period of incident wave is long, which may cause dangerous loads on the structure. The shut chamber can effectively restrain the motion of OWC, but alternatively cause high pressure in the chamber. A Contracting opening with a Taper (CT) can exhaust a great amount of kinetic energy of OWC, and significantly decrease the loads. It is a promising protective tec     

Wave-Current Forces on Small Square Cylinders (Part I)

-Based on the extended Morison Equation and model tests, the in-line forces on small square cylinders caused by waves (regular and irregular) and currents are analyzed in detail in this paper. The hydrodynamic coefficient CD and Cu related to KC number and the effect of direction of wave incidence are also given, which can be used in engineering practice.     

Fractal Dimension and Fractals in Ocean Engineering

- This paper discusses the application of fractal dimension and fractals in ocean engineering. To handle some ocean environment problems, the existing fractal method, in which the fractal dimension is a constant, can be used. For some complicated problems in ocean engineering, this paper presents the concept of the variable dimension fractals (D = f(r)), i. e., the fractal dimension D is the function of characteristic scale r instead of a constant. By using variable dimension fractals, several deformation and stress states of offshore structures are described.     

Impact Buckling and Post-Buckling of Elasto-Viscoplastic Cylindrical Shell Under Torsion

The dynamic torsional buckling and post-buckling of elasto-plastic circular cylindrical shell isstudied.By the usage of the Bodner-Partom constitutive relation,the present visco-plastic problem is treat-ed as an orthotropic elastic problem.Based on the nonlinear large deflection shell therory,the governingdynamic buckling equation is solved by the Runge-Kutta method,and the critical buckling stress is deter-mined by the B-R criterion.The present paper is mainly focused on the imperfection sensitivity,the strainrate sensitivity,and the dynamic post-buckling characters for the shell loaded dynamically with a constantshear strain rate.Numerical results show that the critical shear stress and imperfection sensitivity will in-crease with the increase of strain rate.It is found that the elastic buckling stress is more sensitive toimperfection than the visco-plastic buckling.The present research also reveals some dynamic post-bucklingcharacters for the cylindrical shell,and it is shown that the shell will vibra     

Research on Characteristics of Density Current Under the Action of Waves

In this paper,the characteristics of density current under the action of waves are describedwith the help of flume experiment and theoretical analysis.The study shows that turbid water under the ac-tion of the waves can present three types of motion,i.e.significant stratification,fragile stratification andstrong mixing.The motion of turbid water presents significant stratification when(H/D)/△ρ/ρ~(1/2)≤4.5,generally this state is known as density current.The formulas of motionvelocity,thickness,and discharge of density current moving on horizontal bottom are derived by use of ba-sic equations such as momemtum equation,equation of energy conservation and continuity equation offluid.The time-average velocity and the thickness of density current under the action of waves have a rela-tionship with such parameters as relative density(△ρ/ρ),wave height(H),and water depth(D).Whenthese parameters are determined,the time-average thickness and motion velocity of density current are al-so determined.The relat     

Estimation of Axial Pile Bearing Capacity According to Shear Strength Parameters of Soil

At pesent,it is very popular to estimate pile bearing capacity by use of empirical formula andphysical indexes of soil provided in the design codes for civil construction in China.This paper attempts toapply mechanical indexes of soil and semi-empirical formulas,which are based on soil mechanical theoriesand were summarized and presented by Meyerhof in 1976,to calculate the axial pile bearing capacity.Lo-ading test results of 24 single piles in Tianjin area have been collected and compared with the proposed cal-ulation approach.     

Static Analysis of Collision Strength of Offshore Platform

In this paper a numerical analysis method combining FEM incemental technique with limit analysis concept is proposed for the study of the static strength of offshore platform in collision. Large deformation and plasticity are accounted for and the limit yield surface expressed by generalized stress for a tubular section is derived. The modified stiffness matrix of space beam element is formulated by Plastic Node Method. The buckling behavior of beam columns can also be taken into account. It can trace the generation of plastic hinges during loading and finally the ultimate strength of offshore platform against collision is obtained.     

Model Test of Sand Restraining Force on Pipeline

This paper describes the model tests for determining the axial friction and the lateral resistance of sand to pipeline by using fine sand and prototype pipeline, and the calculation method based on limit analysis theory is verified. The effect of cyclic loading is considered in the test.