Effects of roughness on hydrodynamic characteristics of a submerged floating tunnel subject to steady currents

The effects of surface roughness as induced by marine fouling on the hydrodynamic forces on a submerged floating tunnel (SFT) are experimentally and numerically investigated in detail at Reynolds numbers Re = 8.125 × 10³–5.25 × 10⁴. A sensitivity analysis to different roughness parameters including roughness height, skewness, coverage ratio, and spatial arrangement is performed. In addition, an optimized parametric cross-section for an SFT is proposed, and the hydrodynamic performance of the parametric shape and circular SFT cross-section shape with roughness elements is compared. The pressure distribution along the SFT, flow separation and wake characteristics are analyzed to provide a systematic insight into the fundamental mechanism relating the roughness parameters and flow around an SFT. In order to better understand the nonlinear relationships among structural geometry, roughness parameters, flow states, and structural response, an artificial intelligence method using Random Forest (RF) for feature importance ranking is applied. The results show that with the parametric shape, the hydrodynamic forces on the fouled SFT can be effectively mitigated. The roughness height and coverage ratio affect the equivalent blockage and hence, change flow separation and recirculation length in the wake. Lower skewness of the roughness elements can increase the critical Re by changing the relative roughness parameter. Horizontal arrangement of the roughness elements on an SFT generally results in the largest hydrodynamic forces, compared to staggered and vertical distributions. Throughout the feature importance ranking, the flow regime is found to be the most important feature of the hydrodynamics of the SFT. In addition, the SFT cross-section shape and roughness coverage ratio play a dominant role.     

Required test durations for converged short-term wave and impact extreme value statistics — Part 1: Ferry dataset

For the design of maritime structures in waves, the extreme values of responses such as motions and wave impact loads are required. Waves and wave-induced responses are stochastic, so such responses should always be related to a probability. This information is not easy to obtain for strongly non-linear responses such as wave impact forces. Usually class rules or direct assessment via experiments or numerical simulations are applied to obtain extreme values for design. This brings up questions related to the convergence of extreme values: how long do we need to test in order to obtain converged statistics for the target duration? Or, vice versa: given testing data, what is the uncertainty of the associated statistics? Often the test or simulation duration is cut up in ‘seeds’ or ‘realisations’, with an exposure duration of one or three hours based on the typical duration of a steady environmental condition at sea, or the time that a ship sails a single course. The required number of seeds for converged results depends on the type of structure and response, the exposure duration, and the desired probability level. The present study provides guidelines for the convergence of most probable maximum (MPM) wave crest heights and MPM green water wave impact forces on a ferry. Long duration experiments were done to gain insight into the required number of seeds, and the effect of fitting. The present paper presents part 1 of this study; part 2 [1] presents similar results for wave-in-deck loads on a stationary deck box.     

Required test durations for converged short-term wave and impact extreme value statistics–Part 2: Deck box dataset

In the assessment of wave-in-deck loads for new and existing maritime structures typically model tests are carried out. To determine the most critical conditions and measure sufficient impact loads, a range of sea states and various seeds (realisations) for each sea state are tested. Based on these measurements, probability distributions can be derived and design loads determined. In air gap model testing usually only few, if any, impact loads occur per 3-hour seed. This can make it challenging to derive reliable probability distributions of the measured loads, especially when only a few seeds are generated. In addition wave impact forces, such as greenwater loading, slamming, or air gap impacts are typically strongly non-linear, resulting in a large variability of the measured loads. This results in the following questions: How many impacts are needed to derive a reliable distribution? How is the repeatability of individual events affecting the overall distribution? To answer these questions wave-in-deck model tests were carried out in 100 x 3-hour realisations of a 10,000 year North Sea sea state. The resulting probability distributions of the undisturbed wave measurements as well as the measured wave-in-deck loads are presented in this paper with focus on deriving the number of seeds and exposure durations required for a reliable estimate of design loads.The presented study is Part 2 of a combined study on guidance for the convergence and variability of wave crests and impact loading extreme values. The data set of Part 1 ([1]) is based on greenwater loads on a sailing ferry and the data set of Part 2 on wave-in-deck loads on a stationary deck box.     

Review of the uncertainties associated to hull girder hydroelastic response and wave load predictions

This paper reviews the importance of uncertainties in hull girder loads influenced by flexible fluid structure interactions. The focus is on developments in the field of hydroelastic modelling, simulation and model tests of practical relevance to the prediction hull girder wave load predictions and their validation. It is concluded that whereas hydroelastic methods for use in design development and assessment become increasingly useful, challenges in realizing and modelling uncertainties can be attributed to: (1) the limitations of numerical methods to suitably model nonlinearities; (2) the ambiguity of model tests; and (3) the systematic use of data emerging from computational, model- or full-scale methods. An approach is recommended to assess the uncertainty in the hydroelastic responses to wave loading and an example is provided to demonstrate the application of the procedure.     

An improved method for estimating internal solitary waves force on small circular cylindrical structures

Theoretically calculation and laboratory experiments were performed to investigate the horizontal force exerted by internal solitary wave (ISW) on small circular cylindrical structures. Improvement in calculation of drag force and inertia force by introducing two-drag-coefficient method and spatial derivative of velocity into the calculation of force by eigenfunction was made based on systematically study on theoretical foundations. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) method and high precision force sensor were used to measure the velocity and force exerted by ISW, respectively. ISW waveform was traced by analyzing image frames follow grayscale threshold method. For the first time, components of horizontal force were calculated from PIV data, which show good agreement with theoretical one. Moreover, series comparisons between experimental data and calculational results were carried out to examine the proposed method. The results show ideal accuracy of the method and significant improvement comparing to the traditional method.