Fluid Resonance Between Twin Floating Barges with Roll Motion Under Wave Action

The wave-induced fluid resonance between twin side-by-side rectangular barges coupled with the roll motion of the twin barges is investigated by both numerical simulation and physical model test. A 2D numerical wave flume, based on an open source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package OpenFOAM, is applied for the numerical simulation. After numerical validations and convergent verifications, the characteristics of the fluid resonance in the gap between the twin rolling side-by-side barges are examined. The resonant frequency of the oscillating fluid in the gap between the twin rolling barges decreases compared with that between the twin fixed barges. Generally, the twin barges roll in the opposite directions, and their equilibrium positions lean oppositely with respect to the initial vertical direction. A physical model test is carried out for a further investigation, in which the twin barges are set oppositely leaning and fixed. From the present experimental results, a linear decrease of the resonant frequency with the increasing leaning angle is found. Combined with the numerical results, the deflection of the equilibrium positions of the twin barges is a relevant factor for the resonant frequency. Besides, the effects of the gap width and incident wave height on the fluid resonance coupled with roll motion are examined.

Design and Experiment Using Flexible Bumps for Piezoelectric-Driven Hydraulically Amplified Braille Dot Display

This paper describes the design of a piezoelectric-driven hydraulically amplified Braille-flexible bump device that enables the flexible formation of Braille characters. A piezoelectric vibrator is used to excite fluid resonance in a cavity, and displacement is realized by compressing the fluid, allowing Braille character dots to be formed. First, the structural design and working principle of the device, as well as the method used to drive the fluid, are explained. Expressions for the output displacement and amplification ratio of the flexible film and piezoelectric vibrator are then obtained through kinetic analysis of the system unit. Subsequently, the structural parameters that affect the output displacement and the liquid amplification are described. Finally, experimental tests of the system are explained. The results indicate that the output displacement of the contact formed by the flexible film reaches 0.214 mm, satisfying the requirements of the touch sensitivity standard for the blind, when the fluid cavity diameter measures 31 mm and the resonance frequency is 375.4 Hz. The corresponding water discharge is 8.8 mL. This study proves that constructing a Braille bump device in this way is both feasible and effective.

Numerical modeling of fluid resonance in narrow gaps of fixed rectangular structures

A two-dimensional numerical model is developed to investigate the phenomenon of resonance in narrow gaps. Instead of using commonly used Volume of Fluid method to capture the free surface which is sometimes difficult to capture the geometric properties of the geometrically complicated interface, the free surface is traced by using Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method. The numerical model is based on the two-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes equations. The numerical model is validated against wave propagation in wave flume. Comparisons between the numerical results and available theoretical data show satisfactory agreements. Fluid resonance in narrow gaps of fixed rectangular structures are simulated. Numerical results show that resonance wave height and wave frequency for rectangle boxes with sphenoid corners is larger than for rectangle boxes.