Wave tank and bench-top control testing of a wave energy converter

An increasing number of experiments are being conducted to study the design and performance of wave energy converters. Often in these tests, a real-time realization of prospective control algorithms is applied in order to assess and optimize energy absorption as well as other factors. This paper details the design and execution of an experiment for evaluating the capability of a model-scale WEC to execute basic control algorithms. Model-scale hardware, system, and experimental design are considered, with a focus on providing an experimental setup capable of meeting the dynamic requirements of a control system. To more efficiently execute such tests, a dry bench testing method is proposed and utilized to allow for controller tuning and to give an initial assessment of controller performance; this is followed by wave tank testing. The trends from the dry bench test and wave tank test results show good agreement with theory and confirm the ability of a relatively simple feedback controller to substantially improve energy absorption. Additionally, the dry bench testing approach is shown to be an effective and efficient means of designing and testing both controllers and actuator systems for wave energy converters.     

Hydrodynamic performance of a T-shaped floating breakwater

The comprehensive utilization of floating breakwaters, specially acting as a supporting structure for offshore marine renewable energy explorations, has received more and more attention recently. Based on linear water-wave theory, the hydrodynamic performance of a T-shaped floating breakwater is semi-analytically investigated through the matched eigenfunction expansion method (MEEM). Auxiliary functions, to speed up the convergence and improve the accuracy in the numerical computations, are introduced to represent the singular behavior of fluid field near the lower salient corners of the structure. The effects of the height and installation position of the vertical screen on the reflection and transmission coefficients, dynamic response and wave forces are examined. It is found that the presence of the screen shifts the resonance frequency of RAO for both surge and pitch modes to the low-frequency area, while has no effect on heave mode. The identical added masses, damping and transmission coefficients can be obtained in the cases where the screen holds the same distance away from the longitudinal central axis of the upper box-type structure. Moreover, a relatively small pitch response can be achieved in a wide wave–frequency range, when the breakwater is Γ-shaped.     

An efficient hybrid integral-equation method for point-absorber wave energy converters with a vertical axis of symmetry

To assist in the prototyping and controller design of point-absorber wave energy converters (WECs), an easy-to-implement hybrid integral-equation method is presented for computing the frequency-domain hydrodynamic properties of bodies with a vertical axis of symmetry in waves. The current hybrid method decomposes the flow domain into two parts: an inner domain containing the body and an outer domain extending to infinity. The solution in the inner domain is computed using the boundary-element method, and the outer-domain solution is expressed using eigenfunctions. Proper matching at the domain boundary is achieved by enforcing continuity of velocity potential and its normal derivative. Body symmetry allows efficient computation using ring sources in the inner domain. The current method is successfully applied to three different body geometries including a vertical truncated floating cylinder, the McIver toroid, and the coaxial-cylinder WEC being developed in the authors’ laboratory. In particular, the current results indicate that, by replacing the flat bottom of the coaxial-cylinder WEC with the Berkeley-Wedge (BW) shape, viscous effect can be significantly reduced with only minor negative impact on wave-exciting force, thus increasing WEC efficiency. Finally, by comparing to experimental measurements, the current method is demonstrated to accurately predict the heave added mass and wave-exciting force on the coaxial-cylinder WEC with BW geometry. If a viscous damping correction factor is used, the heave motion amplitude can also be accurately computed.     

Experimental investigation of tsunami bore impact pressure on a perforated seawall

Catastrophic failures of many tsunami barriers along the affected coasts during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake tsunami has prompted extensive investigation into improving and revising design codes for tsunami defence structures. To date, researchers and coastal engineers are investigating to understand the failure mechanisms and to find solutions so that the structures merely remain intact in the extreme event such as tsunami. Thus, the present work is motivated to experimentally study tsunami-induced bore pressures exerted on vertical seawalls; a solid vertical wall and a porous vertical seawall that consisted of a perforated front wall and a solid rear wall. Bores with various heights and velocities were generated by using the dam-break method. A porous seawall with 20% porosity of perforated front wall was used in this study. Bore pressures exerted on the solid rear wall and chamber oscillations that occurred in the experiments were also discussed. The experimental results showed that multiple peak pressures were observed during bore run-up phase in the time series of bore impacts. A predictive equation to estimate the maximum bore pressure on a perforated seawall was developed using multiple regression analysis. The proposed equation was also compared with previous empirical formulas.     

Temporal variation of modulated-wave-train geometries and their influence on vertical bending moments of a container ship

A towing experiment was conducted using a modulated wave train to investigate the vertical bending responses of a hydro-structural container ship model. In the experiment, a spatially periodic modulated wave train, as a model of a freak wave in successive high waves mimicking the so-called three sisters, was generated by the recently established higher-order spectral method wave generation (HOSM-WG) method. HOSM-WG enables us to control the location and timing of the maximum crest height in a wave tank. With precise control of the towing carriage, an experiment was conducted in which the timing of the encounters between the ship model and the modulated wave train was accurately determined. The maximum sagging moment (SM) was found to increase in proportion with the encounter wave height. However, because of differences in the relative depth of the fore and aft troughs, the maximum SM is highly variable for a given wave height. The temporal wave-geometry evolution caused the relative trough-depth to vary significantly within a wave period in the vicinity of the maximum crest height. As a result, depending on the encounter timing, the SM varied considerably for a given wave height. The temporal variation of the wave geometry is a robust feature of a modulated wave train and is common between the spatially periodic and temporally periodic modulated wave trains.     

Sea state estimation using multiple ships simultaneously as sailing wave buoys

The article presents initial ideas towards a network-based approach for sea state estimation used for marine operations and other maritime applications. In principle, all available means, ranging from in situ buoys, fleet of ships to remote sensing by satellite and aircraft, could be considered, emphasising that each means and any combinations among may act simultaneously. This study focuses on just one of the means; the use of ships as sailing wave buoys. The article introduces the wave buoy analogy, i.e. ship-as-a-wave-buoy, and it makes a proposal on how to impose (different) weights to the single ship-specific wave spectrum estimates obtained from multiple ships. Moreover, the work includes a discussion about the importance to associate a measure to reflect the (un)certainty of the wave spectrum estimate. The article presents a numerical case study, where multiple ships act simultaneously as wave spectrum-estimators. The case study relies on numerical motion simulations, as appropriate full-scale data is not yet available. In the analysis, it is shown that the use of simultaneous data from multiple ships leads to more accurate wave spectrum estimations.     

Obtaining the distribution of quiescent periods directly from the power spectral densities of Sea waves

There is a growing practical interest in the ability to increase the sea states at which marine operations can be safely undertaken by exploiting the quiescent periods that are well known to exist under a wide range of sea conditions. While the actual prediction of quiescent periods at sea for the control of operations is a deterministic process, the long term planning of future maritime tasks that rely on these quiescent periods is a statistical process involving the anticipated quiescence properties of the forecasted sea conditions in the geographical region of interest. It is in principle possible to obtain such data in tabular form either large scale simulation or from field data. However, such simulations are computationally intensive and libraries of appropriate field data are not common. Thus, it is clearly attractive to develop techniques that exploit standard wave spectral models for describing the quiescence statistics directly from such spectra. The present study focuses upon such techniques and is a first step towards the production of a computationally low-cost quiescence prediction tool and compares its efficacy against simulations. Two significant properties emerge for a large class of wave spectral models that encompasses the ubiquitous Neumann and Pierson Moskowitz or Bretschneider forms. Firstly, the auto-correlation function of the wave profile that are required to produce the quiescence property can be obtained analytically in terms of standard special functions. This considerably reduces the computational cost making desktop computer-based planning tools a reality. Secondly, for each class of these parametric spectra, the probability of a given number of consecutive wave heights (normalised to the significant wave heights) less than some critical value is in fact independent of absolute wave height. Thus, for a broad class of practically interesting wave spectra all that is required to obtain the statistical distribution of the quiescent periods is simple rescaling.     

面向中国洪涝灾害应急监测的无人机空港布局

当前洪涝灾害对社会的经济发展和人民生命财产安全构成严重威胁。无人机机动、灵活,安全性高,可迅捷甚至实时获取灾区影像,对灾情的快速评估和应急救援决策意义重大。遥感无人机在洪涝灾害救援中能够发挥的重要作用已得到广泛共识,但是由于灾害的突发性,缺乏就近部署的资源制约了无人机遥感观测和救援作用的发挥。针对突发灾害,在区域和全国范围内建立起一定的无人机遥感应急体系成为国家面向未来正在考虑的选项。基于此,本研究提出了基于中国科学院的野外台站构建全国无人机遥感观测网的设想。本研究以中国防范洪涝灾害等级分布数据、行政区划数据、中国科学院野外台站分布数据和当前无人机性能数据库为数据源;以行政区划离散并提取的中心点作为需求点,台站作为设施点,不同洪涝等级区域内需要无人机进行应急观测的重要程度作为权重,利用最大覆盖选址模型进行空港选址布局;利用成本-效益曲线确定台站的最佳数量,最终从268个台站中选取出81个作为支撑全国洪涝灾害无人机遥感观测网络的无人机空港。无人机空港布局结果在理论上能够实现对中国绝大数突发洪涝灾害在2 h内初步完成洪涝观测,这对于构建中国空天地一体化的洪涝灾害监测体系具有重要意义。同时,本研究中的方法和成果对于进一步构建行业和综合性的全国无人机遥感观测网也具有一定借鉴和参照意义。     

Interaction of flexural gravity waves with shear current in shallow water

In the present study, the effect of shear current on the propagation of flexural gravity waves is analyzed under the assumptions of linearized shallow-water theory. Explicit expressions for the reflection and transmission coefficients associated with flexural gravity wave scattering by a step discontinuity in both water depth and current speed are derived. Further, trapping and scattering of flexural gravity waves by a jet-like shear current with a top-hat profile are examined and certain limiting conditions for the waves to exist are derived. The effects of change in water depth, current speed, incident wavelength and the angle of incidence on the group and phase velocities as well as on the reflection and transmission characteristics are analyzed through different numerical results.     

三种验潮方法水位观测性能比较与统计分析

水尺、压力式验潮仪与验潮井验潮仪是海道测量水位控制和水位观测的主要手段。通过6日6个时间段的同步比对试验,计算了三种方法获取水位观测数据之间的潮时差和潮高差,分析了三种观测手段的水位观测性能以及产生差值的可能原因,提出了使用方法的建议。