Free-Surface Measurements in a Tow Tank Using LiDAR

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Fu ◽  
Anne M. Fullerton ◽  
David A. Drazen

Light Detection and Ranging, or LiDAR, is a remote sensing technique that can be utilized to collect topographic data. These systems have been used extensively to measure open ocean and ship generated waves. Recently LiDAR systems have been used to measure the transom wave of the R/V Athena I and ambient ocean waves. This work has primarily focused on providing the time averaged, and spectral content of the wave field, by scanning the laser to measure wave profiles evolving in time. This paper describes recent efforts to utilize LIDAR systems to measure free-surface elevations in laboratory tow tanks. LiDAR measurements are limited to the white-water breaking regions of the flow, due to the limited strength of the signal return from non-breaking regions. In extending LiDAR measurements to a laboratory tow tank environment the lack of surface roughness and hence the lack of surface light scatterers needed to be addressed. A number of laboratory measurement applications will be described including a tow tank measurement similar to the R/V Athena I effort, and also measurement of regular and irregular breaking waves.

Author(s):  
Jannette B. Frandsen ◽  
Alistair G. L. Borthwick

Nonlinear effects of standing wave motions in fixed and vertically excited tanks are numerically investigated. The present fully nonlinear model analyses two-dimensional waves in stable and unstable regions of the free-surface flow. Numerical solutions of the governing nonlinear potential flow equations are obtained using a finite-difference time-stepping scheme on adaptively mapped grids. A σ-transformation in the vertical direction that stretches directly between the free-surface and bed boundary is applied to map the moving free surface physical domain onto a fixed computational domain. A horizontal linear mapping is also applied, so that the resulting computational domain is rectangular, and consists of unit square cells. The small-amplitude free-surface predictions in the fixed and vertically excited tanks compare well with 2nd order small perturbation theory. For stable steep waves in the vertically excited tank, the free-surface exhibits nonlinear behaviour. Parametric resonance is evident in the instability zones, as the amplitudes grow exponentially, even for small forcing amplitudes. For steep initial amplitudes the predictions differ considerably from the small perturbation theory solution, demonstrating the importance of nonlinear effects. The present numerical model provides a simple way of simulating steep non-breaking waves. It is computationally quick and accurate, and there is no need for free surface smoothing because of the σ-transformation.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janek Meyer ◽  
Hannes Renzsch ◽  
Kai Graf ◽  
Thomas Slawig

While plain vanilla OpenFOAM has strong capabilities with regards to quite a few typical CFD-tasks, some problems actually require additional bespoke solvers and numerics for efficient computation of high-quality results. One of the fields requiring these additions is the computation of large-scale free-surface flows as found e.g. in naval architecture. This holds especially for the flow around typical modern yacht hulls, often planing, sometimes with surface-piercing appendages. Particular challenges include, but are not limited to, breaking waves, sharpness of interface, numerical ventilation (aka streaking) and a wide range of flow phenomenon scales. A new OF-based application including newly implemented discretization schemes, gradient computation and rigid body motion computation is described. In the following the new code will be validated against published experimental data; the effect on accuracy, computational time and solver stability will be shown by comparison to standard OF-solvers (interFoam / interDyMFoam) and Star CCM+. The code’s capabilities to simulate complex “real-world” flows are shown on a well-known racing yacht design.


Author(s):  
Anne M. Fullerton ◽  
Thomas C. Fu ◽  
Edward S. Ammeen

Impact loads from waves on vessels and coastal structures are highly complex and may involve wave breaking, making these changes difficult to estimate numerically or empirically. Results from previous experiments have shown a wide range of forces and pressures measured from breaking and non-breaking waves, with no clear trend between wave characteristics and the localized forces and pressures that they generate. In 2008, a canonical breaking wave impact data set was obtained at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, by measuring the distribution of impact pressures of incident non-breaking and breaking waves on one face of a cube. The effects of wave height, wavelength, face orientation, face angle, and submergence depth were investigated. A limited number of runs were made at low forward speeds, ranging from about 0.5 to 2 knots (0.26 to 1.03 m/s). The measurement cube was outfitted with a removable instrumented plate measuring 1 ft2 (0.09 m2), and the wave heights tested ranged from 8–14 inches (20.3 to 35.6 cm). The instrumented plate had 9 slam panels of varying sizes made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and 11 pressure gages; this data was collected at 5 kHz to capture the dynamic response of the gages and panels and fully resolve the shapes of the impacts. A Kistler gage was used to measure the total force averaged over the cube face. A bottom mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) was used to obtain measurements of velocity through the water column to provide incoming velocity boundary conditions. A Light Detecting and Ranging (LiDAR) system was also used above the basin to obtain a surface mapping of the free surface over a distance of approximately 15 feet (4.6 m). Additional point measurements of the free surface were made using acoustic distance sensors. Standard and high-speed video cameras were used to capture a qualitative assessment of the impacts. Impact loads on the plate tend to increase with wave height, as well as with plate inclination toward incoming waves. Further trends of the pressures and forces with wave characteristics, cube orientation, draft and face angle are investigated and presented in this paper, and are also compared with previous test results.


Author(s):  
Masood Taheri Andani ◽  
Abdullah Mohammed ◽  
Ashish Jain ◽  
Mehdi Ahmadian

This paper investigates the application of Doppler Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensors for the assessment of the top of rail lubricity condition and layer material. Different top of rail conditions are distinguished by the system using a new pair of rail surface indices defined based on LIDAR measurements. These indices provide quantitative representations of the top of rail condition due to the fact that Doppler frequency range and spectral magnitude of a backscattered LIDAR beam are functions of the rail surface figure as well as the light absorption properties of the surface material. Laboratory tests are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed top of rail indexing operation. The results indicate that LIDAR sensors are capable of detecting and distinguishing between different top of rail surface conditions. Instrumenting rail inspection vehicles with Doppler LIDAR systems reduces reliance on empirical top of rail lubricity and surface assessments (such as observing the sheen of the rail or tactilely sensing various residues on the rail), in favor of reliable and repeatable measurements.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ting Cui ◽  
Arun Kamath ◽  
Weizhi Wang ◽  
Lihao Yuan ◽  
Duanfeng Han ◽  
...  

Abstract The correct estimation of wave loading on a cylinder in a cylinder group under different impact scenarios is essential to determine the structural safety of coastal and offshore structures. This scenario differs from the interaction of waves with a single cylinder but not a lot of studies focus on cylinder groups under different arrangements. In this study, the interaction between plunging breaking waves and cylinder groups in deep water is investigated using the two-phase flow model in REEF3D, an open-source computational fluid dynamics program. The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equation with the two equation k–Ω turbulence model is adopted to resolve the numerical wave tank, with free surface calculated using the level set method. In this study, focused waves in deep water were modeled with a fixed wave steepness method. Wave breaking occurs when the steepness of the wave crest front satisfies the breaking criteria. The model is validated by comparing the numerical wave forces and free surface elevation with measurements from experiments. The computational results show fairly good agreement with experimental data for both free surface elevation and wave forces. Four cases are simulated to investigate the interaction of breaking waves with a cylinder group with different relative distance, number of cylinders and arrangement. Results show that breaking wave forces on the upstream cylinder are smaller than on a single cylinder with a relative distance of one cylinder diameter. The wave forces on cylinders in the pile group are effected by the relative distance between cylinders. The staggered arrangement has a significant influence on the wave forces on the first and second cylinder. The interaction inside a cylinder group mostly happens between the neighbouring cylinders. These interactions are also effected by the relative distance and the numbers of the neighbouring cylinders.


2020 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 103717
Author(s):  
Nikta Iravani ◽  
Peyman Badiei ◽  
Maurizio Brocchini

Author(s):  
Ping-Chang Shih ◽  
Guillermo Gallego ◽  
Anthony Yezzi ◽  
Francesco Fedele

Studies of wave climate, extreme ocean events, turbulence, and the energy dissipation of breaking and non-breaking waves are closely related to the measurements of the ocean surface. To gauge and analyze ocean waves on a computer, we reconstruct their 3-D model by utilizing the concepts of stereoscopic reconstruction and variational optimization. This technique requires a pair of calibrated cameras — cameras whose parameters are estimated for the mathematical projection model from space to an image plane — to take videos of the ocean surface as input. However, the accuracy of camera parameters, including the orientations and the positions of cameras as well as the internal specifications of optics elements, are subject to environmental factors and manual calibration errors. Because the errors of camera parameters magnify the errors of the 3-D reconstruction after projection, we propose a novel algorithm that refines camera parameters, thereby improving the accuracy of variational 3-D reconstruction. We design a multivariate error function that represents discrepancies between captured images and the reprojection of the reconstruction onto the images. As a result of the iteratively diminished error function, the camera parameters and the reconstruction of ocean waves evolve to optimal values. We demonstrate the success of our algorithm by comparing the reconstruction results with the refinement procedure to those without it and show improvements in the statistics and spectrum of the wave reconstruction after the refinement procedure.


Author(s):  
Michael Odzer ◽  
Kristina Francke

Abstract The sound of waves breaking on shore, or against an obstruction or jetty, is an immediately recognizable sound pattern which could potentially be employed by a sensor system to identify obstructions. If frequency patterns produced by breaking waves can be reproduced and mapped in a laboratory setting, a foundational understanding of the physics behind this process could be established, which could then be employed in sensor development for navigation. This study explores whether wave-breaking frequencies correlate with the physics behind the collapsing of the wave, and whether frequencies of breaking waves recorded in a laboratory tank will follow the same pattern as frequencies produced by ocean waves breaking on a beach. An artificial “beach” was engineered to replicate breaking waves inside a laboratory wave tank. Video and audio recordings of waves breaking in the tank were obtained, and audio of ocean waves breaking on the shoreline was recorded. The audio data was analysed in frequency charts. The video data was evaluated to correlate bubble sizes to frequencies produced by the waves. The results supported the hypothesis that frequencies produced by breaking waves in the wave tank followed the same pattern as those produced by ocean waves. Analysis utilizing a solution to the Rayleigh-Plesset equation showed that the bubble sizes produced by breaking waves were inversely related to the pattern of frequencies. This pattern can be reproduced in a controlled laboratory environment and extrapolated for use in developing navigational sensors for potential applications in marine navigation such as for use with autonomous ocean vehicles.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Navas Guzmán ◽  
Giovanni Martucci ◽  
Martine Collaud Coen ◽  
María José Granados Muñoz ◽  
Maxime Hervo ◽  
...  

Abstract. This study focuses on the analysis of aerosol hygroscopicity using remote sensing technique. Continuous observations of aerosol backscatter coefficient, temperature and water vapour mixing ratio are performed by means of a Raman lidar system at the aerological station of MeteoSwiss at Payerne (Switzerland) since 2008. These measurements allow us to monitor in a continuous way any change of aerosol properties as a function of the relative humidity (RH). These changes can be observed either in time at constant altitude or in altitude at a constant time. The accuracy and precision of RH measurements from the lidar have been evaluated using the radiosonde (RS) technique as reference. A total of 172 RSs were used in this intercomparison which revealed a small bias (


1979 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 29-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Turgut Sarpkaya

Sarpkaya, Turgut, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Ca. Abstract The evolution of forces acting on horizontal cylinders subjected to impact by a sinusoidally oscillating free surface was investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The experiments were conducted in a large U-shaped tunnel, with cylinders 3 to 8 in. (76 to 203 mm) in diameter. The results are expressed in terms of three force coefficients:the general slamming coefficient that expresses the normalized force acting on the cylinder at any time after the impact.the normalized impact force at the initial instants of slamming, andthe maximum drag coefficient that occurs when the cylinder is immersed in water about 1.8 diameters. The slamming-force coefficient was found to equal 3.2. Also, the force experienced by the cylinder cannot be considered in dependently of the dynamic response of that cylinder. In fact, the slamming-force coefficient may be amplified to a value as high as 6.3 through the dynamic response of the cylinder and its supports. Introduction Information about the forces acting on bluff bodies subjected to wave slamming is of significant importance in ocean engineering and naval architecture. The design of structures that must survive in a wave environment depends on a knowledge of the forces that occur at impact, as well as on the dynamic response of the system. Two typical examples include the structural members of offshore drilling platforms at the splash zone and the often encountered slamming of ships.The general problem of hydrodynamic impact has been studied extensively, motivated in part by its importance in ordnance and missile technology. Extensive mathematical models have been developed for cases of simple geometry, such as spheres and wedges. These models have been well supported by experiment. Unfortunately, the special case of wave impact has not been studied extensively. Kaplan and Silbert developed a solution for the forces acting on a cylinder from the instant of impact to full immersion. Dalton and Nash conducted slamming experiments with a 0.5-in. (12.7-mm) diameter cylinder and small amplitude waves created in a laboratory tank. Their data exhibited large scatter and showed no particular correlation with either the predictions of the hydrodynamic theory or identifiable wave parameters. Miller presented the results of a series of wave-tank experiments to establish the magnitude of the wave-force slamming coefficient for a horizontal circular cylinder. He found an average slamming coefficient of 3.6 for those trials in which slamming was dominant.Evaluating slamming effects with wavy flows is extremely difficult partly because of the limited range of wave amplitudes that can be achieved and partly because of the difficulty of measuring the partly because of the difficulty of measuring the fluid velocities at the instant of impact.Faltinsen et al. investigated the load acting on rigid horizontal circular cylinders (with end plates and length-to-diameter ratios of about 1) that were forced with constant velocity through an initially calm free surface. They found that the slamming coefficient ranged from 4.1 to 6.4. They also conducted experiments with flexible horizontal cylinders and found that the analytically predicted values were always lower (50 to 90%) than those found experimentally.This investigation was undertaken (1) to examine the existing theoretical models for determining wave slam forces on circular cylinders; (2) to furnish data, obtained under controlled laboratory conditions, about forces acting on circular cylinders subjected to impact with a sinusoidally oscillating water surface; (3) to determine the relative importance of the inertia- and drag-dominated forces during fluid impact; and (4) to correlate these data for identifiable wave parameters such as the Froude number (NFr); the Keulegan-Carpenter number (NK); and the Reynolds number (NRe).This investigation does not deal with the relatively more complex impact situations arising from the slamming of random ocean waves on the members of offshore structures. SPEJ p. 29


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