Hydroelastic Motion of Aircushion Type Large Floating Structures With Several Aircushions Using a Three-Dimensional Theory

This paper describes hydroelastic motion and effect of motion reduction of aircushion supported large floating structures. Motion reduction effects due to presence of aircushions have been confirmed from theoretical calculations with the zero-draft assumption. A three-dimensional prediction method has been developed for considering draft influence of division walls of aircushions. It is investigated that hydroelastic motion reduction is possible or not by using the three-dimensional theoretical calculations. In addition, the aircushion types are supported by many aircushions which are small related to wavelengths. The Green’s function method is applied to the prediction method with the linear potential theory in which effect of free water surfaces within aircushions are considered. Hydroelastic responses are estimated as not only elastic motion but also a vertical bending moment. From the results, the response reduction is confirmed, in particular, to the vertical bending moment in wide wavelength range and in whole structure area.

Influence of Multidirectional Irregular Wave Sampling to Second-Order Hydroelastic Responses of VLFS

Hydroelasticity theory considering the second-order fluid forces induced by the coupling of first-order wave potentials is introduced briefly in this paper. Based on this theory, four types of multidirectional irregular wave samplings are introduced, the frequency steps Δω of the four samplings are 0.04, 0.04, 0.02 and 0.01 rad/s, and the corresponding numbers of wave components N are 17, 75, 147 and 285 respectively. The result of principal coordinates and displacements of a very large floating structure (VLFS) for the four types of sampling are presented and discussed. The influence of the sampling is analyzed. The conclusions show that the sampling of the multidirectional irregular waves influence the second-order hydroelastic response of the VLFS. The accuracy and the computer time of the calculating with sampling of frequency step Δω = 0.02 rad/s are acceptable.

Effects of Fluid Motions in Liquid Tanks on Vessel Motions Using a Simple Panel Method

This paper presents a simple and fast panel method to include the effect of liquid tanks of a vessel in the prediction of the natural frequencies of the vessel motions. The effects are expressed in terms of modifications to the added mass and stiffness matrices of the vessels with the liquids in the tanks assumed being rigid. An application example for a vessel with two internal liquid tanks is demonstrated.

Study on Characteristics and Operating Parameters of Axial Rotating Hydrocyclone

The axial rotation of the hydrocyclone affects its internal flow characteristics and separating effect directly, as some local applications require the static hydrocyclone rotates about its own axis. Based on CFD, velocity distribution in the axial rotating hydrocyclone is studied. It is shown that as the rotation speed increasing, the tangential velocity improves and its gradient reduces in free vortex region observably, while the radial velocity has an incremental trend in the section of the small cone. The laboratory experiments are carried out for the static hydrocyclone of disposal capacity of 4 m3/h at 100r/min ∼ 300r/min. The relationships among rotation speed, flowrate, pressure drop and separated efficiency are achieved, which agree well with the numerical simulation results. The results indicate that the disposal capacity of hydrocyclone subjected to the rotation wall can be more flexible than that with no-rotating wall, the scope of best disposal capacity gradually enlarges with the increase of rotation speed of wall. Appropriate rise of the rotation speed is favor of the separation efficiency at the steady flowrate, however the increase of the flowrate and rotation speed induces the growth of the hydrocyclone’s pressure drop correspondingly to some extent.

Spacing Effect on Hydrodynamics of Two Adjacent Offshore Caissons

In this paper, scaled boundary finite-element method (SBFEM) is extended to study wave interaction with two adjacent rectangular cylinders. In addition to the advantages in accurate and efficient representation of singularities and unbounded domains, the modified SBFEM shows distinct capability in dealing with wave diffraction including adjacent multiple structure interactions. Comparisons of wave runup and wave forces on each cylinder of the two adjacent offshore caissons with traditional panel method demonstrate a high accuracy achieved with excellent computational efficiency. Detailed results and discussion of the spacing effect on the hydrodynamics of the two cylinder system are presented. Design recommendations are made based on the maximum wave forces on both caissons.

Conceptual Design and Key Technology Development of a Long-Range Underwater Vehicle Traveling Over Thousands Kilometers

The underwater platform which has enough ability to cruise globally and freely in vast deep sea will allow us to make the survey of entire oceans. We aim to develop an underwater platform which travels and surveys across entire oceans for the research into the global change, ocean-trench earthquake, and biodiversity and so on. We have developed the first prototype underwater platform or the long-range cruising autonomous underwater vehicle (LCAUV) named Urashima since 1998. The vehicle powered by a polymer electrolyte fuel cell system marked the world record of cruising distance of 317 kilometers in 2005. The vehicle has the following specifications: length; 10 m, weight; 10 tons, maximum depth ratings; 3500 m, maximum cruising speed; 3.2 knots, and endurance; 60 hours. This large vehicle has large user payload of a few hundreds kilograms. In 2007, we started research and development of the elemental technologies which will be utilizes for development of the second generation LCAUV to achieve cruising range of over 3000 kilometers. The technologies under research and development are power sources, navigation methods, communication methods, vehicle controllers, materials for body, and advanced sensors for highly resolution survey. The fuel cell and secondary battery hybrid system is had to improve at energy efficiency to generate electricity as possible for long time running with limited energy. A high accuracy inertial navigation system and an underwater positioning system being covered area of over 1000 km are under development. A synthesized aperture sonar is also under development.

A Joint Numerical and Experimental Study of a Surging Point Absorbing Wave Energy Converter (WRASPA)

This paper presents the findings from using several commercial computational fluid dynamics codes in a joint numerical and experimental project to simulate WRASPA, a new wave energy converter (WEC) device. A series of fully 3D non-linear simulations of WRASPA are presented. Three commercial codes STAR-CCM, CFX and FLOW-3D are considered for simulating the WRASPA device and final results are presented based on the use of Flow-3D. Results are validated by comparison to experimental data obtained from small scale tank tests undertaken at Lancaster University (LU). The primary aim of the project is to use numerical simulation to optimize the collector geometry for power production over a range of likely wave climates. A secondary aim is to evaluate the ability of commercial codes to simulate rigid body motion in linear and non-linear wave climates in order to choose the optimal code with respect to compute speed and ease of problem setup. Issues relating to the ability of a code in terms of numerical dissipation of waves, wave absorption, wave breaking, grid generation and moving bodies will all be discussed. The findings of this paper serve as a basis for an informed choice of commercial package for such simulations. However the capability of these commercial codes is increasing with every new release.

Wave Scattering From Multiple Horizontal Plates as a Breakwater

The multiple horizontal plates breakwater is proposed in this article, which mainly consists of several horizontal plates. The regular wave test results demonstrate that it has good performance of dissipating waves. Based on the linear potential wave theory, the scattering of waves normally incident on the multiple horizontal plates in a channel of finite water depth is investigated. The velocity potential is split to the symmetric and antisymmetric part, and the method of eigenfunction expansions is used to obtain the unknown constant coefficients determined from the matching conditions. The thickness of the plates is considered in the theoretical analysis. The present solution is compared with the existing theoretical, numerical and experimental results with good agreements. The parameters such as the relative water depth, relative plate width, relative plate thickness and number of plates, those identified with the performance of the breakwater are investigated and discussed. The variation of reflection and transmission coefficients alone with the above mentioned parameters are also presented.

An Investigation Into the Non-Linear Effects Resulting From Air Cushions in the Orecon Oscillating Water Column (OWC) Device

When designing an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) device, the motions and structural responses in waves are of great interest. However, predictions of these motions are complicated by the presence of air chambers above a large proportion of the waterplane area. Modeling the stiffness provided by air cushions at model scale presents a number of problems as air stiffness does not scale according to the laws of Froude scaling. To-date, the closest analogy might be an air-lifted gravity base structure, or crane vessel. However, in an OWC device, the air is not trapped as it is allowed to vent through a turbine. As a result, in still water, none of the mass of the buoy is supported by the air column. However, as the buoy is subjected to waves of increasing height the influence of the air chambers on the motions response becomes more pronounced. Experiments into the behavior of structures with trapped air springs have focused largely on benign sea conditions as the air cushions are generally used in vessels or structures involved with installation operations or similar. In contrast, the behavior of an OWC device must be predicted in all conditions up to, and including, survival conditions. BPP-TECH are providing technical support to the designers of the Orecon MRC wave energy buoy. This buoy uses chambers of varying drafts to generate electricity from the waves. The buoy is tension moored to the sea bed in order to constrain the heave motions to maximize the air pressure within the chambers as waves pass. A series of tank tests were undertaken at the OCEANIDE facility in order to investigate the motions of the buoy while tension moored and also measure the mooring line tensions. This paper will focus on the methods used to represent the air chambers at model scale and will present the results of the tests. A variety of different orifice sizes were used in the test campaign in order to provide a spread of values that would offer an insight into the effect of the air chambers on the motions of the structure in waves.

Global Hydroelastic Analysis of Pontoon-Type VLFS

A two-dimensional composite strategy given by Greco et al. [1] is applied to couple a linear global solution with a nonlinear local analysis. Globally a linear hydroelastic analysis is performed by an accurate Beam-On-Elastic-Foundation (BOEF) method. A parameter analysis of hydroelastic response of the structure is also carried out. Locally, a two-dimensional fully-nonlinear numerical wave tank (NWT) in combination with a Boundary Element Method (BEM) is developed to estimate the interaction between regular waves and the structure restrained from rigid and elastic motions. The effect of air cushion is considered. Present results are compared with experimental data and other numerical solutions.