Getting the ducks in a row

Vessels – in the widest sense – travelling on a water surface continuously do work the water surrounding it, causing energy to be radiated in the form of surface waves. The concomitant resistance force, the wave resistance, can account for as much as half the total drag on the vessel, so reducing it to a minimum has been a major part of ship design research for many decades. Whether the ‘vessel’ is an ocean-going ship or a swimming duckling, the physics governing the V-shaped pattern of radiated waves behind it is in essence the same, and just as fuel economy is important for commercial vessels, it is reasonable to assume that also swimming waterfowl seek to minimise their energy expenditure. Using theory and methods from classic marine hydrodynamics, Yuan et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 928, 2021, R2) consider whether, by organising themselves optimally, ducklings in a row behind a mother duck can reduce, eliminate or even reverse their individual wave resistance. They describe two mechanisms which they term ‘wave riding’ and ‘wave passing.’ The former is intuitive: the ducklings closest to the mother can receive a forward push by riding its mother's stern waves. The latter is perhaps a more striking phenomenon: when the interduckling distance is precisely right, every duckling in the row can, in principle, swim without wave resistance due to destructive wave interference. The phenomenon appears to be the same as motivates the recent US military research project Sea Train, a row of unmanned vehicles travelling in row formation.

The Wave System of the Sydney Harbor RiverCat Ferry

We revisit here the hydrodynamics supporting the design and development of the RiverCat class of catamaran ferries operating in Sydney Harbor since 1991. The design of the ferry was strongly influenced by the requirement to limit the erosion of the banks on the sides of the Parramatta River along which these ferries operate. More advanced software is used here. This software accounts for the hydrodynamics of the transom stern which create a hollow in the water. This hollow causes an effective hydrodynamic lengthening of the vessel. This leads to a reduction in the generation of the wave system and the consequent wave resistance. It is demonstrated that lengthening the RiverCat would substantially reduce its wave generation.

MODELING THE FREQUENCY CHARACTERISTICS OF THE QUADRATURE THREE-LOOP L-BAND WAVELENGTH BRIDGE

Представлены результаты численного моделирования частотныххарактеристик квадратурного трехшлейфового моста (КШМ) L-диапазона, выполненного на основе симметричной полосковой линии с воздушным заполнением. Цель работы - установление допустимого уровня вносимых тепловых потерь полосковых линий (или других типов линий передачи), не оказывающих заметного влияния на рабочие характеристики КШМ, удовлетворяющие требуемым параметрам. Метод расчета основан на принципе декомпозиции электрической цепи КШМ на шесть симметричных 6-полюсников, три из которых соответствуют нечетной моде возбуждения КШМ, а три других - четной моде возбуждения КШМ. Алгебраическое суммирование матриц рассеяния указанных мод позволило получить частотные характеристики результирующей S-матрицы рассеяния КШМ. Нормирование S-матрицы к стандартному волновому сопротивлению 50 Ом выполнено с помощью вычисления собственных значений матриц рассеяния эквивалентных 4-полюсников КШМ. Моделирование проведено в среде LabVIEW. The paper presents the results of numerical simulation of the frequency characteristics of the L-range quadrature three-loop bridge (QLB), based on the symmetric striped line with air filling. The purpose of the study is to establish the permissible level of introduced thermal losses of strip lines (or other types of transmission lines) that do not significantly affect the performance characteristics of the QLB, satisfying the required parameters. The calculation method is based on the principle of decomposition of the QLB electric circuit into six symmetric 6-poles, three of which correspond to the odd excitation mode of the QLB, and the other three correspond to the even excitation mode of the QLB. Algebraic summation of the scattering matrices of these modes made it possible to obtain frequency characteristics of the resulting S-scattering matrix of the qLb. The normalization of the S-matrix to the standard wave resistance of 50 Ohms was carried out using the calculation of the eigenvalues of the scattering matrices of equivalent 4-poles of the QLB. The simulation was carried out in the LabVIEW environment.