Numerical Modeling of a Spherical Buoy Moored by a Cable in Three Dimensions

Floating facilities have been studied based on the static analysis of mooring cables over the past decades. To analyze the floating system of a spherical buoy moored by a cable with a higher accuracy than before, the dynamics of the cables are considered in the construction of the numerical modeling. The cable modeling is established based on a new element frame through which the hydrodynamic loads are expressed efficiently. The accuracy of the cable modeling is verified with an experiment that is conducted by a catenary chain moving in a water tank. In addition, the modeling of a spherical buoy is established with respect to a spherical coordinate in three dimensions, which can suffers the gravity, the variable buoyancy and Froude-Krylov loads. Finally, the numerical modeling for the system of a spherical buoy moored by a cable is established, and a virtual simulation is proceeded with the X- and Y-directional linear waves and the X-directional current. The comparison with the commercial simulation code Proteus DS indicates that the system is accurately analyzed by the numerical modeling. The tensions within the cable, the motions of the system, and the relationship between the motions and waves are illustrated according to the defined sea state. The dynamics of the cables should be considered in analyzing the floating system of a spherical buoy moored by a cable.

Wash Waves Generated by High Speed Displacement Ships

It is difficult to compute far-field waves in a relative large area by using one wave generation model when a large calculation domain is needed because of large dimensions of the waterway and long distance of the required computing points. Variation of waterway bathymetry and nonlinearity in the far field cannot be included in a ship fixed process either. A coupled method combining a wave generation model and wave propagation model is then used in this paper to simulate the wash waves generated by the passing ship. A NURBS-based higher order panel method is adopted as the stationary wave generation model; a wave spectrum method and Boussinesq-type equation wave model are used as the wave propagation model for the constant water depth condition and variable water depth condition, respectively. The waves calculated by the NURBS-based higher order panel method in the near field are used as the input for the wave spectrum method and the Boussinesq-type equation wave model to obtain the far-field waves. With this approach it is possible to simulate the ship wash waves including the effects of water depth and waterway bathymetry. Parts of the calculated results are validated experimentally, and the agreement is demonstrated. The effects of ship wash waves on the moored ship are discussed by using a diffraction theory method. The results indicate that the prediction of the ship induced waves by coupling models is feasible.