Virtual hull monitoring of a naval vessel using hindcast data and reconstructed 2-D wave spectra

A novel virtual hull monitoring approach is assessed using full-scale measurements from a naval vessel trial to address two questions. First: Can this technique accurately reproduce stress spectra from measured strains? Second: Are responses calculated using reconstructed two-dimensional wave spectra from hindcast data more accurate than those using simpler wave representations? Stresses calculated using wave hindcast data, ship track information, and stress transfer functions compare favorably to those derived from strain gauge measurements at five structural locations. Wave conditions are represented using a spectrum model along with bulk spectral parameters (significant wave height, peak period, and primary direction) from hindcast datasets and by reconstructing two-dimensional spectra from hindcast partition data. Both approaches give good agreement with strain measurements but using the more-detailed reconstructed two-dimensional wave spectra yields better results. Results suggest that wave hindcast data are sufficient for accurate structural calculations, encouraging further study of virtual hull monitoring using wave hindcast data.     

Onboard monitoring of fatigue damage rates in the hull girder

Most new advanced ships have extensive data collection systems to be used for continuous monitoring of engine and hull performance, for voyage performance evaluation etc. Such systems could be expanded to include also procedures for stress monitoring and for decision support, where the most critical wave-induced ship extreme responses and fatigue damage accumulation can be estimated for hypothetical changes in ship course and speed in the automatically estimated wave environment.The aim of this paper is to outline a calculation procedure for fatigue damage rate prediction in hull girders taking into account whipping stresses. It is conceptually shown how such a method, which integrates onboard estimation of sea states, can be used to deduce decision support with respect to the accumulated fatigue damage in the hull girder.The paper firstly presents a set of measured full-scale wave-induced stress ranges in a container ship, where the associated fatigue damage rates calculated from a combination of the rain-flow counting method and the Palmgren-Miner damage rule are compared with damage predictions obtained from a computationally much faster frequency fatigue analysis using a spectral method. This analysis verifies the applied multi-modal spectral analysis procedure for fatigue estimation for cases where hull girder flexibility plays a role.To obtain an automated prediction method for the fatigue damage rates it is in the second part of the paper shown how a combination of the full-scale onboard acceleration and stress measurements can be used to calculate sea state parameters. These calculated environmental data are verified by a comparison to hindcast data.In the third part of the paper the full-scale fatigue stress ranges are compared to results from an analytical design oriented calculation procedure for flexible ship hulls in short-term estimated sea states.Altogether, it is conceptually shown that by a combination of the onboard estimated sea state parameters with the described analytical fatigue damage prediction procedure a method can be established for real-time onboard decision support which includes estimates of fatigue damage rates.     

Sea state estimation based on vessel motion responses: Improved smoothness and robustness using Bézier surface and L1 optimization

Floating structures oscillate in waves, where these wave-induced motions may be critical for various marine operations. An important consideration is thereby given to the sea states at the planning and operating stages for an offshore project. The most important information extracted from a sea state is the directional wave spectrum, indicating wave direction, significant wave height, and wave spectrum peak period. Among several available methods of measuring and estimating the directional wave spectrum, the wave buoy analogy technique based on vessel motion responses is an in situ and almost real-time solution without extra costs of devices. If the forms of the wave spectra are not predefined in the estimation, the method is called a nonparametric approach. Its most remarkable advantage is the flexible form, but the smoothness should be regulated. After the discrete Fourier transform has been applied to the measured vessel motions, smoothing is necessary. However, this process results in disturbed vessel cross-spectra and a lowpass characteristic of the windowing function. This paper presents a nonparametric approach for directional wave spectrum estimation based on vessel motion responses. It introduces novel smoothness constraints using Bézier surface and includes a more robust estimate using L1 optimization. Both techniques are applied to the wave buoy analogy for the first time. Numerical simulations are conducted to verify the proposed algorithm.     

Wave spectrum estimation conditioned on machine learning-based output using the wave buoy analogy

In this work, a hybrid approach for wave spectrum estimation is proposed. Fundamentally, the approach is based on the wave buoy analogy, processing ship response measurements, via a framework combining machine learning and a physics-based method dependent on available transfer functions. Specifically, a non-parametric (Bayesian) estimate is obtained of the directional wave spectrum conditioned on integral wave parameters established by a convolutional neural network. The developed method is assessed in a case study considering about two years of data obtained from an in-service container ship. The method produces good results, significantly improved when compared to the initial estimate made without constraints.     

Estimation of the wave direction of ship waves generated by a small vessel using the multiple signal classification method

It is very important to estimate the waves generated by a small vessel so as to investigate their effects on floating bodies within the scope of fisheries and ocean engineering. Simplified methods for estimating the wave heights and periods of ship waves have been presented in previous studies. However, estimating the direction of ship waves is not easy. The focus of the present study is to develop an analytical technique to determine the direction of ship waves based on the measurements in field experiments. The multiple signal classification (MUSIC) method is newly proposed for determining the direction of ship waves. For high ship speeds, the directional spectrum of ship waves estimated by MUSIC resulted in a sharp monotone peak, and the estimated directions of ship waves were very similar to the results of field experiments using an actual small vessel. The proposed MUSIC method has thus been confirmed to be effective in estimating ship wave directions with high resolution.     

Ocean wave spectrum estimation using measured vessel motions from an in-service container ship

This article is about the use of measured wave-induced vessel motions for estimation of ocean wave spectra by application of the wave buoy analogy. In the study, data from a larger, in-service container ship is considered. The estimation of wave spectra, equivalently sea state parameters, is based on measurements from, respectively, a gyro and two accelerometers leading to the simultaneous use of the pitching motion together with the horizontal and vertical accelerations in a position close to the forward perpendicular. The study of in-service data leads to contemplations about the vessel's advance speed, as the possible existence of sea current means that speed-over-ground (SOG) and speed-through-water (STW) will be different. The article discusses aspects related to advance speed in the context of the wave buoy analogy, and a smaller sensitivity study is conducted. Preceding to the sensitivity study, a comparison is made between sea state estimates by the wave buoy analogy and estimates obtained from a hindcast study. The article shows an acceptable agreement between the two sets of estimates. Following, the main conclusion from the sensitivity study on advance speed is that errors and uncertainties in the speed log have an effect on the estimates of the wave buoy analogy. In fact, the effect can be severe if reliable STW measurements are not available. In the final part, the article includes a few discussions about (non)stationary conditions in the context of the wave buoy analogy, and, although the effect on results is not necessarily detrimental, care must be shown when the wave buoy analogy is applied during in-service conditions.     

A practical method for torsional strength assessment of container ship structures

Container ship structures are characterized by large hatch openings. Due to this structural property, they are subject to large diagonal deformations of hatch openings and warping stresses under complex torsional moments in waves. This necessitates torsional strength assessment of hull girder of container ships in their structural design stage. In this paper, a practical method for torsional strength assessment of container ship structures with transparent and consistent background is discussed based on the results from up-to-date analyses. In order to estimate the torsional response characteristics as accurately as possible, three-dimensional Rankine source method, after being validated by tank tests, is employed for estimation of wave loads on a container ship, and FE analyses are conducted on the entire-ship model under the estimated loads. Then, a dominant regular wave condition under which the torsional response of the container ship becomes maximum is specified. Design loads for torsional strength assessment that give torsional response equivalent to the long-term predicted values of torsional response are investigated based on the torsional moments on several container ships under the specified dominant wave condition. An appropriate combination of stress components to estimate the total hull girder stress is also discussed.     

Estimations of on-site directional wave spectra from measured ship responses

In general, two main concepts can be applied to estimate the on-site directional wave spectrum on the basis of ship response measurements: (1) a parametric method which assumes the wave spectrum to be composed by parameterised wave spectra; or (2) a non-parametric method where the directional wave spectrum is found directly as the values in a completely discretised frequency-directional domain without a priori assumptions on the spectrum. The paper outlines the theory of these two concepts, and it is shown how to deal with the speed-of-advance problem for operating ships. In addition, the methods include an equivalence of energy in the governing equations and, as regards the parametric concept, a frequency-dependent spreading of the waves is introduced.The paper includes an extensive analysis of full-scale measurements for which the directional wave spectra are estimated by the two ship response-based methods. Hence, comparisons are made between these estimates and, moreover, the agreement with the corresponding directional wave spectra produced by the wave radar system WAVEX is studied. The agreement between the two methods is reasonable, as well is the agreement between the results of these methods and those of WAVEX. It is difficult to propose one of the ship response-based methods in favour of the other, since they perform equally well.     

Stochastic wave spectra estimation (SWSE) based on response surface methodology considering uncertainty in transfer functions of a ship

In this paper, a new wave spectra estimation method is proposed in which the frequency domain wave estimation method (FDWE) is extended into a probabilistic analytical framework in order to estimate the encountered sea states involving uncertainty in transfer functions of a ship. The proposed method, named the Stochastic Wave Spectra Estimation (SWSE), makes use of an Hermite polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) to represent the uncertainty in the transfer functions and the response surfaces. The method involves a mathematical formulation where an extension of the deterministic FDWE concept to the space of random variables is made. The proposed method can accurately and easily estimate the encountered wave spectra based on ship response measurements accounting for uncertainty in the transfer functions. In this paper, numerical and experimental investigations of the proposed SWSE are made, where the uncertainties in the transfer functions of heave and pitch motions of a containership are taken into account. The validity of the SWSE is demonstrated by comparison to results of uncertainty analyses through the Monte-Carlo simulations (MCS).     

Difference in ship motion and wave load in long and short crested irregular waves北大核心CSCD

[Objective]To investigate ship motion and load responses in realistic 3D waves and overcome the limitations of the traditional 2D wave assumption, this paper develops a method for predicting ship motion and load responses in short-crested waves. [Method]The long- and short-term responses of ship motion and load in long- and short-crested waves are numerically predicted using the spectral analysis and statistical probability methods, respectively. The influence of directional function on ship response is also numerically analyzed. Moreover, tank model tests and a large-scale model sea trial are comparatively conducted to validate the difference between ship response and statistics in long- and short-crested irregular waves. [Results]The results show that when navigating against the waves in the same sea condition, the long-crested wave assumption overestimates the statistical mean value of ship load response, but underestimates extreme load in real seas. For long-crested waves, the ship motion and acceleration power spectrum is concentrated around a certain frequency band. [Conclusion]Ship motion and load responses in realistic 3D waves are significantly different from those in 2D long-crested waves. The directional function of short-crested waves also has a significant effect on ship motion and load responses. © 2023 The Author(s).     

Tuning of transfer functions for analysis of wave–ship interactions

Transfer functions are often used together with a wave spectrum for analysis of wave–ship interactions, where one application addresses the prediction of wave-induced motions or other types of global responses. This paper presents a simple and practical method which can be used to tune the transfer function of such responses to facilitate improved prediction capability. The input to the method consists of a measured response, i.e. time series sequences from a given sensor, the 2D wave spectrum characterising the seaway in which the measurements are taken, and an initial estimate of the transfer function for the response in study. The paper presents results obtained using data from an in-service container ship. The 2D wave spectra are taken from the ERA5 database, while the transfer function is computed by a simple closed-form expression. The paper shows that the application of the tuned transfer function leads to predictions which are significantly improved compared to using the transfer function without tuning.     

Model experiment reproducing an incident of fast ferry

A model scale experiment at a new basin reproduced a phenomenon occurring for a fast ferry; large roll motion and subsequent cargo shift in a quartering sea. Wave generators surrounding the whole periphery of the basin realized a designated directional sea. A carriage system tracked a free-running model ship and a movable weight simulated the cargo shift. Measuring the directional wave field in the basin confirmed the all-around wave generator successfully reproduced the intended wave field that was estimated for the location and the time of the incident. The encounter wave spectrum analyzed using measured data agree well with the theoretically predicted one. The reproduced ship motion, triggered by a small concentrating wave, tells how the ship responded in the successive large quartering waves and the validity of the procedure to reproduce the incident. Repeated measurements of the model ship’s extreme motion confirm a high repeatability of the experiment.     

Research on shafting alignment considering ship hull deformations

Ship hull deformation is one of the most significant influences on propulsion shafting alignment. Based on the calculation fundamentals of ship hull deformations, a new method of shafting alignment considering ship hull deformations is proposed in this paper. Ship loadings, wave loads and environment temperature differences in some extreme conditions, as well as elastic constraints, are simulated and applied to the finite element model of 76,000 DWT product oil tanker, so that ship hull deformations can be solved. Then, the deformations of the double bottom are converted to bearing offsets, which behave as boundary constraints for shafting alignment calculations. Taking the condition of light ship in calm water as a reference, the impact of hull deformations on shafting alignment is analyzed and optimized shafting alignment considering ship hull deformations is realized.     

基于不同试验方法和非线性水弹性时域理论的鞭振弹振响应研究

船体主尺度增大会导致严重的鞭振和弹振现象,这会增大船体结构的极限载荷和疲劳损伤.为了深入探究船体的振动响应,文中在拖曳水池对某万箱集装箱船分别进行了分段模型的自航和拖航试验.分析了不同海况下自航和拖航这两种试验方式对鞭振和弹振响应的影响.为计及不同振动频率成分对载荷响应的影响,提出一种考虑波浪记忆效应的非线性水弹性方法.文中提出了一种求解延时函数的方法,能够解决高频区域的阻尼系数的计算限制.最后,船舯弯矩试验结果分别和线性与非线性理论结果进行了比较,发现文中提出的非线性方法能够更好地预报弹性船体的振动响应.     

基于谱的海浪模拟与谱估计

针对掠海飞行器系统仿真的需要,研究了海浪仿真方法。选取P—M谱作为海浪谱,通过海况确定波谱参数,在波谱仿真带宽内采用频率等分法对其进行分割,根据Longuest—Higgins海浪模拟模型进行仿真,得出了海浪时域波形。并采用Welch法进行波谱估计,从波谱能量度量,仿真精确度达到了99．22％。     

Study on real-time estimation of the ship motion cross spectra

 Time-varying coefficient vector autoregressive (T-VVAR) modeling with instantaneous responses is applied to spectrum analysis based on the nonstationary motion data of ships. Because of the ship's maneuvers, changes such as course and speed, the ship motions in waves are regarded as a nonstationary random process, although the seaway can be considered as a stationary stochastic process. The T-VVAR model is transformed into a state space model, and the time-varying coefficients can be evaluated by using the Kalman filter algorithm. Using the estimated time-varying coefficients, the instantaneous cross spectra of the ship motions can be calculated at every moment. In order to examine the reliability of the proposed procedure, on-board tests were carried out. Under stationary conditions, at a constant speed and course, the proposed method shows good agreement with stationary vector autoregressive (SVAR) modeling analysis. Moreover, it is confirmed that the proposed method can estimate the instantaneous cross spectra of the ship motions even under nonstationary conditions, showing that this is a powerful tool for on-line analysis of the nonstationary motion data of ships. Received: August 2, 2002 / Accepted: November 28, 2002 Acknowledgments. The authors thank the captain and crew of the training ship Shioji Maru, Tokyo University of Mercantile Marine. Address correspondence to: T. Iseki (iseki@ipc.tosho-u.ac.jp) Updated from the Japanese original, which won the 2002 SNAJ prize (J Soc Nav Archit Jpn 2001;190:161–168)     

海浪扰动信号的仿真方法

给出了一种新的以遭遇频率表示的海浪遭遇谱和遭遇波倾角谱的数学表达式，介绍了建立随机海浪模型的三种仿真方法，即频率等分法、能量等分法和有理谱法，并采用能量等分法进行了海浪模型的仿真和分析。它对于研究船舶装备、船舶行业机器人、海上作业平台和船舶的运动控制具有重要意义。     

舰船在三维非规则波中的航向航速优选

文章探讨了舰船在三维非规则波中，基于方向谱的六自由度摇荡及动力响应统计特征值的计算方法，并给出了计算结果和实船海试结果的对比，证实了算法是可行的，精度高于舰船在二维非规则波中基于频谱的计算结果。在此基础上，提出了舰船在三维非规则波中航向航速优选的求解模式和算例。     

不同海况下艏部砰击及鞭状效应的试验与数值分析

为了更深入地研究船舶的鞭状效应,在拖曳水池中对某船进行了艏部砰击及鞭状效应分段模型试验研究。提出了一种可以考虑砰击力的非线性水弹性计算方法。并改进了传统的分段模型,采用变截面梁对船体刚度进行模拟以更好地接近实船。在规则波迎浪下观察到了严重的艏部砰击现象。试验数据表明,当波高从5.6m增大到21m时,由于鞭状效应原因,总弯矩相比低频波浪弯矩的增大值从24.64%增长到92.02%。最后,将不同海况下的测量结果与基于线性与非线性水弹性理论的计算结果进行了比较分析,初步验证了文中方法和程序在预报船体波浪载荷中的适用性。     

基于实船试验的主船体结构安全性评估方法

与模型的水池试验相比,风浪中实船的结构响应测试困难得多,尤其是高浪级很难遇到,中低浪级的实船试验结果如何用于船体结构的安全性评估,成为关注的焦点。文中基于多条船的中低浪级的实船试验结果,给出了比较强度和高浪级下船体应力的极值预报两种船体结构安全性的评估方法。研究结果表明所给出的评估方法为新建船舶主船体结构的安全性评估提供了比较有效的工程应用工具。