Depression and elevation internal solitary waves in a two-layer fluid and their forces on cylindrical piles

Both large amplitude depression and elevation internal solitary waves （ISWs） were observed on the continental shelf of the northwest South China Sea （SCS） during the Wenchang Intemal Wave Experiment. In this study, we investigate the characteristics of depression and elevation ISWs based on comparisons between observational results and internal wave theories. It is suggested that the large amplitude depression wave is better represented by the extended Korteweg-de Vries （EKdV） theory than by the KdV model, whereas the large amplitude elevation wave is in better agreement with the KdV equation than with the EKdV theory. Wave-induced forces on a supposed small-diameter cylindrical pile by depression and elevation waves are also estimated using the internal wave theory and Morison formula. The wave-induced force by elevation ISWs is rarely reported in the literature. It is found that the force induced by the elevation wave differs significantly fi＇om that by the depression wave, and the elevation wave generally produces greater force on the pile in the lower water column than the depression wave. These results show that ISWs in the study area can present a serious threat to ocean engineering structures, and should not be ignored in the design of oil platforms and ocean operations.

Joint Distribution of Wave Periods and Rate of Change of Wave Surface Elevation

The rate of change of wave surface elevation is of much importance in ocean engineering, especially for the determination of the limitation of wave breaking. This paper gives a kind of joint distribution of wave periods and the rate of change of wave surface elevation by means of calculation of the two-order to four-order moment of the frequency spectrum based on the linear wave theory. For the first time, the distribution density function of wave periods determined by peaks is provided, and the conclusion is drawn that the rate of change of wave surface elevation obeys the Rayleigh distribution.

A Probability Distribution of Surface Elevation for Wind Waves in Terms of the Gram-Charlier Series

Laboratory experiments are conducted to study the probability distribution of surface elevation for wind waves and the convergence is discussed of the Gram-Charlier series in describing the surface elevation distribution. Results show that the agreement between the Gram-Charlier series and the observed distribution becomes better and better as the truncated order of the series increases in a certain range, which is contrary to the phenomenon observed by Huang and Long (1980). It is also shown that the Gram-Charlier series is sensitive to the anomalies in the data set which will make the agreement worse if they are not preprocessed appropriately. Negative values of the probability distribution expressed by the Gram-Charlier series in some ranges of surface elevations are discussed, but the absolute values of the negative values as well as the ranges of their occurrence become smaller gradually as more and mote terms are included. Therefore the negative values will have no evident effect on the form of the whole surface elevation distribution when the series is truncated at higher orders. Furthermore, a simple recurrence formula is obtained to calculate the coefficients of the Gram-Charlier series in order to extend the Gram-Charlier series to high orders conveniently.

Nonlinear Random Motion Analysis of Coupled Heave-Pitch Motions of a Spar Platform Considering lst-Order and 2nd-Order Wave Loads

In this study, the coupled heave-pitch motion equations of a spar platform were established by considering lst-order and 2nd-order random wave loads and the effects of time-varying displacement volume and transient wave elevation. We generated random wave loads based on frequency-domain wave load transfer functions and the Joint North Sea Wave Project （JONSWAP） wave spectrum, designed program codes to solve the motion equations, and then simulated the coupled heave-pitch motion responses of the platform in the time domain. We then calculated and compared the motion responses in different sea conditions and separately investigated the effects of 2nd-order random wave loads and transient wave elevation. The results show that the coupled heave-pitch motion responses of the platform are primarily dominated by wave height and the characteristic wave period, the latter of which has a greater impact. 2nd-order mean wave loads mainly affect the average heave value. The platform＇s pitch increases after the 2nd-order low frequency wave loads are taken into account. The platform＇s heave is underestimated if the transient wave elevation term in the motion equations is neglected.

A study of internal solitary waves observed on the continental shelf in the northwestern South China Sea

Based on in-situ time series data from the acoustic Doppler current profiler （ADCP） and thermistor chain in Wenchang area, a sequence of internal solitary wave （ISW） packets was observed in September 2005, propagating northwest on the continental shelf of the northwestern South China Sea （SCS）. Corresponding to different stratification of the water column and tidal condition, both elevation and depression ISWs were observed at the same mooring location with amplitude of 35 m and 25 m respectively in different days. Regular arrival of the remarkable ISW packets at approximately the diurnal tidal period and the dominance of diurnal internal waves in the study area, strongly suggest that the main energy source of the waves is the diurnal tide. Notice that the wave packets were all riding on the troughs and shoulders of the internal tides, they were probably generated locally from the shelf break by the evolution of the internal tides due to nonlinear and dispersive effects.

Laboratory investigation of the hydroelastic effect on liquid sloshing in rectangular tanks

A sloshing experiment is conducted to study the hydroelastic effect in an elastic tank. For this purpose, a translational harmonic excitation is applied to a 2-D rectangular tank model. The lowest-order natural frequencies of the liquid in the tank are determined through the sweep test. The wave elevation and the sloshing pressure are obtained by changing the excitation frequency and the liquid depth. Then the characteristics and the variation of the elevation and the pressure are discussed. The results are compared with the experimental results and the theoretical calculations in a rigid tank. Our analysis indicates that, in the non- resonant cases, the elastic results, the rigid experimental results and the theoretical values are all close to each other. In contrast, under the resonant condition, the elastic experimental result is slightly smaller than the rigid one. Also, the theoretical values are smaller than the experimental results at the resonant frequency.

Study of fluid resonance between two side-by-side floating barges

The hydrodynamic interaction between two vessels in a side-by-side configuration attracted research attentions in recent years. However, because the conventional potential flow theory does not consider the fluid viscosity, in the hydrodynamic results, the wave elevations were overestimated in the narrow gap under resonance conditions. To overcome this limitation and investigate the complex fluid flow around multiple bodies in detail, this study examines the fluid resonance between two identical floating barges using a viscous flow analysis program FLOW-3D. The volume of fluid method is implemented for tracking the free surface, and a porous media model is used near the outflow boundary to enhance the wave absorption. A three-dimensional numerical wave basin is established and validated by comparison with the waves generated using theoretical values. On this basis, a computational fluid dynamics （CFD） simulation of the two barges in a resonance wave period is performed, and the wave elevations, the fluid flow around the barges, and the motions of the barges are discussed. The numerical simulation is verified by comparison with results of corresponding experimental data.