Tension during parametric excitation in submerged vertical taut tethers

The construction of a suspension bridge with floating pylons or a submerged floating tunnel requires the installation of a mooring system. The option of taut vertical tethers, similar to those used in tension-leg platforms, has been suggested in preliminary designs. The environmental loading on the tether, mainly due to wind waves and swell, results in a parametrically excited system. Certain loading conditions develop instabilities that translate into large horizontal motion. However, the effects of parametric resonance on the tension values have rarely been investigated. This paper aims to clarify the relation between lateral displacement and tether tension and to quantify the extreme tension values in the event of parametric resonance. The presented analysis is based on a full numerical model of the tether that includes geometric and hydrodynamic nonlinear effects. This model is used to investigate a representative example that illustrates parametric resonance and multiple parametric studies to assess the effects of the excitation frequency, amplitude, initial pretension, tether length and inclination angle on the tether’s response. The results reported here provide the basis for a recommendation on designing a tether under parametric resonance regarding the ultimate extreme values and fatigue life.     

The motion of a deep-sea remotely operated vehicle system: Part 1: Motion observations

Rapid and high-resolution motion and tension measurements were made of a caged deep-sea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) system. Simultaneous measurements were made of all six components of motion at the cage and ship A-frame and of the tension in the tether at the ship. Data were collected for cage depths of 0–1765 m. The most significant forcing was in the wave-frequency band (0.1–0.25 Hz) and accounted for over 90% of the variance of vertical acceleration. The vertical acceleration of the cage lagged the acceleration of the A-frame by up to 1.9 s and its variance was larger by up to a factor 2.2. For moderate displacements of the A-frame (≤2 m), the system is only weakly non-linear because the harmonics (3rd and 5th) of the vertical acceleration of the cage account for less than 2% of the total variance. The system is essentially one-dimensional because only the vertical motion of the cage and the vertical motion of the A-frame were coherent, while horizontal motions of the cage were weak and incoherent with any component of motion of the A-frame. The natural frequency of the system is 0.22 Hz at 1730 m, and we estimate that it is within the waveband for depths between 1450 m and the full operating depth of 5000 m.Large vertical excursions of the A-frame produce momentary slack in the tether near the cage. Retensioning results in snap loads with vertical accelerations of 0.5 gravity. Large rates of change of tension and vertical acceleration first occur at the cage during its downward motion and propagate to the surface with the characteristic speed (3870 m s⁻¹) of tensile waves for the tether. Six echoes are clearly detectable at both ends of the tether, and their pattern is extremely repeatable in different snap loads. Due to misalignment of the tether termination with the centres of mass and buoyancy, the cage pitches by up 14° during a snap. The resulting small radius of curvature poses the greatest stress on the tether.     

A numerical study of sea breeze circulation observed at a tropical site Kalpakkam on the east coast of India, under different synoptic flow situations

A simulation study of the sea breeze circulation and thermal internal boundary layer (TIBL) characteristics has been carried out at the tropical site Kalpakkam on the east coast of India, for operational atmospheric dispersion prediction. The community based PSU/NCAR MM5 Meso-scale meteorological model is used for the study. Three cases on typical days in summer (24 May 2003), southwest (SW) monsoon (1 July 2001) winter season (2 February 2003) with different large-scale flow pattern are studied. The MM5 model is used with 3 nested domains with horizontal grid resolutions 18 km, 6 km and 2 km and 26 vertical levels. The model is integrated for 24 hours in the above cases with initial and boundary conditions taken from NCEP-FNL analyses data. Observations of 10 meteorological stations and coastal boundary layer experiments conducted at Kalpakkam are used for comparison and validation of the simulation. The characteristics of simulated sea breeze and TIBL at Kalpakkam are seen to vary in the above cases according to the prevailing large-scale winds and surface fluxes. The sea breeze circulation is seen to develop early with larger strength and inland propagation in the summer case under the influence of moderate synoptic wind and strong heating conditions than in the SW monsoon and winter cases. The horizontal and vertical extents of TIBL are found to be larger in the summer case than in other cases. Although model parameters agree in general with observations, all the fine features are not clearly captured and some slowness in model sea breeze development is also seen. The results indicate the need to improve i) the initial conditions by assimilation of available surface/upper air observations to reduce model bias and ii) surface net radiation parameterisation. The model could predict the essential features of the local circulation and further improvement is expected with better initial condition data and incorporation of more realistic surface data.