Study on Floating Properties and Stability of Air Floated Structures

In this paper, the buoyancy, kinetic properties and stability of air floated structures have been studied by theoretical and experimental methods. The equations for calculation of the buoyancy of the air floated buoy are derived according to the Boyler law and the equilibrium equations of the air floated structure are established. Through simplification of the air floated structure as a single freedom rigid body and spring system, the natural period of heaving and some kinetic properties are discussed. In the stability analysis, the formulas for calculation of the meta centric height are presented. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the data observed from the model test and prototype test. The air buoyancy decrease coefficient presented in this paper has a large influence on the floating state, stability and dynamic properties of the air floated structure. The stability of the air floated structure can also be judged by the parameter of meta centric height, and calculations show that the air floated structure is less stable than the conventional float.

Seabed structures and foundations related to deep-sea resource development:A review based on design and research

The deep‐sea ground contains a huge amount of energy and mineral resources,for example,oil,gas,and minerals.Various infrastructures such as floating structures,seabed structures,and foundations have been developed to exploit these resources.The seabed structures and foundations can be mainly classified into three types:subsea production structures,offshore pipelines,and anchors.This study reviewed the development,installation,and operation of these infrastructures,including their structures,design,installation,marine environment loads,and applications.On this basis,the research gaps and further research directions were explored through this literature review.First,different floating structures were briefly analyzed and reviewed to introduce the design requirements of the seabed structures and foundations.Second,the subsea production structures,including subsea manifolds and their foundations,were reviewed and discussed.Third,the basic characteristics and design methods of deep‐sea pipelines,including subsea pipelines and risers,were analyzed and reviewed.Finally,the installation and bearing capacity of deep‐sea subsea anchors and seabed trench influence on the anchor were reviewed.Through the review,it was found that marine environment conditions are the key inputs for any offshore structure design.The fabrication,installation,and operation of infrastructures should carefully consider the marine loads and geological conditions.Different structures have their own mechanical problems.The fatigue and stability of pipelines mainly depend on the soil‐structure interaction.Anchor selection should consider soil types and possible trench formation.These focuses and research gaps can provide a helpful guide on further research,installation,and operation of deep‐sea structures and foundations.

浮式海上风电助力可再生能源发展

Nearly 150 km off the coast of Norway,in one of the windiest places on Earth,stands Hywind Tampen,the world’s largest floating wind power farm.Each weighing 8800 t and 190 m tall,with roughly one-third of that height sitting below the waterline,Hywind Tampen’s 11 turbines can generate 94.6 MW(Fig.1)[1].The blades—each 80 m long—travel at a blistering 290 km∙h–1,yet because of their size they complete only about 10 to 15 full rotations per minute.A single rotation provides enough electricity to power an average home for a day.However,Hywind Tampen,which became fully operational in August 2023,will not power houses.Instead,the installation built by energy company Equinor(Stavanger,Norway)will provide 38%of the annual electricity consumed by five nearby offshore oil platforms in the North Sea[1].

Floating periodic pontoons for broad bandgaps of water waves

The narrow attenuation bands of traditional marine structures have long been a challenge in mitigating water waves.In this paper,a metastructure(MS)composed of floating periodic pontoons is proposed for broadband water wave attenuation.The interaction of surface gravity waves with the MS is investigated using linear wave theory.The potential solutions of water waves by the MS with a finite array are developed by using the eigenfunction expansion matching method(EEMM),and the band structure of the MS is calculated by the transfer matrix method(TMM),in which the evanescent modes of waves are considered.The solution is verified against the existing numerical result for a special case.Based on the present solution,the association between Bragg resonance reflection and Bloch bandgaps is examined,the effects of pontoon geometry are analyzed,and the comparison between floating MS and bottom-mounted periodic structures is conducted.A computational fluid dynamics(CFD)model is further developed to assess the structures in practical fluid environments,and the floating MS presents excellent wave attenuation performance.The study presented here may provide a promising solution for protecting the coast and offshore structures.

Numerical Study on the Effect of Gap Diffraction on the Hydrodynamic Performance of A Floating Breakwater

Two-dimensional(2D)flume experiments are useful in investigating the performances of floating breakwaters(FBs),including hydrodynamic performances,motion responses,and mooring forces.Designing a reasonable gap between the flume wall and the FBs is a critical step in 2D flume tests.However,research on the effect of the gap on the accuracy of 2D FB experimental results is scarce.To address this issue,a numerical wave tank is developed using CFD to estimate the wave-FB interaction of a moored dual-cylindrical FB,and the results are compared to experimental data from a previously published work.There is good agreement between them,indicating that the numerical model is sufficiently accurate.The numerical model is then applied to explore the effect of gap diffraction on the performance of FBs in2D experiments.It was discovered that the nondimensional gap length L_(Gap)/W_(Pool)should be smaller than 7.5%to ensure that the relative error of the transmission coefficient is smaller than 3%.The influence of the gap is also related to the entering wave properties,such as the wave height and period.

Migration Networks Pattern of China’s Floating Population from the Perspective of Complex Network

Since China’s reform and opening-up,the growing disparity between urban and rural areas and regions has led to massive migration.With China’s Rural Revitalization Strategy and the industrial transfer from the eastern coastal areas to the inland,the migration direction and pattern of the floating population have undergone certain changes.Using the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey(CMDS),excluding Hong Kong,Macao,and Taiwan regions of China,organized by China’s National Health Commission,the relationship matrix of the floating population is constructed according to the inflow place of the interviewees and their outflow place(the location of the registered residence)in the questionnaire survey.We then apply the complex network model to analyze the migration direction and network pattern of China’s floating population from the city scale.The migration network shows an obvious hierarchical agglomeration.The first-,second-,third-and fourth-tier distribution cities are municipalities directly under the central government,provincial capital cities,major cities in the central and western regions and ordinary cities in all provinces,respectively.The migration trend is from the central and western regions to the eastern coastal areas.The migration network has‘small world’characteristics,forming nine communities.It shows that most node cities in the same community are closely linked and geographically close,indicating that the migration network of floating population is still affected by geographical proximity.Narrowing the urban-rural and regional differences will promote the rational distribution this population.It is necessary to strengthen the reform of the registered residence system,so that the floating population can enjoy urban public services comparable to other populations,and allow migrants to live and work in peace.

Joint Probability Analysis and Prediction of Sea Ice Conditions in Liaodong Bay

Sea ice conditions in Liaodong Bay of China are often described by sea ice grades,which classify annual sea ice conditions based on the annual maximum sea ice thickness(AM-SIT)and annual maximum floating ice extent(AM-FIE).The joint probability distribution of AM-SIT and AM-FIE was established on the basis of their data pairs from 1949/1950 to 2019/2020 in Liaodong Bay.The joint intensity index of the sea ice condition in the current year is calculated,and the joint classification criteria of the sea ice grades in past years are established on the basis of the joint intensity index series.A comparison of the joint criteria with the 1973 and 2022 criteria revealed that the joint criteria of the sea ice grade match well,and the joint intensity index can be used to quantify the sea ice condition over the years.A time series analysis of the sea ice grades and the joint intensity index sequences based on the joint criteria are then performed.Results show a decreasing trend of the sea ice condition from 1949/1950 to 2019/2020,a mutation in 1990/1991,and a period of approximately 91 years of the sea ice condition.In addition,the Gray-Markov model(GMM)is applied to predict the joint sea ice grade and the joint intensity index of the sea ice condition series in future years,and the error between the results and the actual sea ice condition in 2020/2021 is small.

Global Dynamic Responses and Progressive Failure of Submerged Floating Tunnel Under Cable Breakage Conditions

The Submerged Floating Tunnel(SFT)relies on a tensioned mooring system for precise positioning.The sudden breakage of a single cable can trigger an immediate alteration in the constraint conditions of the tube,inducing a transient heave response within the structure along with a transient increase in cable tension experienced by adjacent cables.In more severe cases,this may even lead to a progressive failure culminating in the global destruction of the SFT.This study used ANSYS/AQWA to establish a numerical model of the entire length SFT for the hydrodynamic response analysis,and conducted a coupled calculation of the dynamic responses of the SFT-mooring line model based on Orca Flex to study the global dynamic responses of the SFT at the moment of cable breakage and the redistribution of cable internal forces.The most unfavorable position for SFT cable breakage was identified,the influence mechanism of cable breakage at different positions on the global dynamic response was revealed,and the progressive chain failure pattern caused by localized cable breakage are also clarified.

Experimental Study on Hydrodynamic Load Characteristics for A Typical Cross-Section of A Submerged Floating Tunnel

The typical cross-sectional form of a submerged floating tunnel plays a significant role in the dynamic response of the tunnel itself,which directly affects the overall design.In this work,a series of experiments involving wave action on a submerged floating tube cross section is reported to study its hydrodynamic load characteristics.Two typical cross section tube cylinders,circular and rectangular,are chosen.Experiments are carried out in a wave flume with waves of relatively low Keulegan-Carpenter(KC)numbers.Three relative depths of submergence of 0,0.25 and 0.5 are chosen.The measured wave forces in regular waves are used to analyze the horizontal force,vertical force and torque,and then the drag coefficient(Cd)and inertia coefficient(Cm)are derived.The results show that the drag coefficients at low KC numbers are large and decrease sharply with increasing KC number.The inertial coefficient Cm values in the vertical direction are about 70%larger than those in the horizontal direction.With an increase in aspect ratio(the ratio of the height to width of the structure),the ratio of inertia coefficient in the horizontal direction to that in the vertical direction increases remarkably.The inertia force coefficient is very sensitive to the submerged water depth and aspect ratio.The existing results may overestimate the actual force value.

Scattering of Water Waves by Dual Symmetric Inclined Floating Porous Barriers Using the DBEM

The scattering of normally incident water waves by two surface-piercing inclined perforated barriers in water with a uniform finite depth is investigated within the framework of linear water wave theory.Considering that thin barriers are zero-thickness,a novel numerical method involving the the coupling of the dual boundary element method(DBEM)with damping layers is applied.In order to effectively damp out the reflected waves,two damping layers,instead of pseudoboundaries are implemented near the two side boundaries of the computational domain.Thus,the modified linearized free surface boundary conditions are formulated and used for solving both the ordinary boundary integral equation as well as the hypersingular boundary integral equation for degenerate boundaries.The newly developed numerical method is validated against analytical methods using the matched eigenfunction expansion method for the special case of two vertical barriers or the inclined angle to the vertical being zero.The influence of the length of the two damping layers has been discussed.Moreover,these findings are also validated against previous results for several cases.After validation,the numerical results for the reflection coefficient,transmission coefficient and dissipation coefficient are obtained by varying the inclination angle and porosity-effect parameter.The effects of both the inclination angle and the porosity on the amplitudes of wave forces acting on both the front and rear barriers are also investigated.It is found that the effect of the inclination angle mainly shifts the location of the extremal values of the reflection and the transmission coefficients.Additionally,a moderate value of the porosity-parameter is quite effective at dissipating wave energy and mitigating the wave loads on dual barriers.

Comparisons of Wave Force Model Effects on the Structural Responses and Fatigue Loads of a Semi-Submersible Floating Wind Turbine

The selection of wave force models will significantly impact the structural responses of floating wind turbines.In this study,comparisons of wave force model effects on the structural responses and fatigue loads of a semi-submersible floating wind turbine(SFWT)were conducted.Simulations were performed by employing the Morison equation(ME)with linear or second-order wave kinematics and potential flow theory(PFT)with first-or second-order wave forces.A comparison of regular waves,irregular waves,and coupled wind/waves analyses with the experimental data showed that many of the simulation results and experimental data are relatively consistent.However,notable discrepancies are found in the response amplitude operators for platform heave,tower base bending moment,and tension in mooring lines.PFT models give more satisfactory results of heave but more significant discrepan-cies in tower base bending moment than the ME models.In irregular wave analyses,low-frequency resonances were captured by PFT models with second-order difference-frequency terms,and high-frequency resonances were captured by the ME models or PFT models with second-order sum-frequency terms.These force models capture the response frequencies but do not reasonably predict the response amplitudes.The coupled wind/waves analyses showed more satisfactory results than the wave-only analyses.However,an important detail to note is that this satisfactory result is based on the overprediction of wind-induced responses.

Simulation of wave scattering over a floating platform in the ocean with a coupled CFD-IBM model

A numerical study of linear wave scattering over a floating platform has been simulated by an efficient numericalmodel in this letter.The non-hydrostatic model is used to simulate the free surface and the uneven bottom.For thesolid body modelling,the immersed boundary method(IBM)is implemented by introducing a virtual boundaryforce into the momentum equations to emulate the boundary conditions.This implementation enhances theability of the model to simulate interactions between waves and floating structures.A numerical case involvingwave interactions with a floating platform is studied to validate the numerical model.By simulating the wavepropagation,the numerical model captures the variation of the wave scattering very well,which verifies theperformance of the numerical model and the robust strategy of the IBM.

Dynamic Analysis of a 10 MW Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Considering the Tower and Platform Flexibility

Recently,semisubmersible floating offshore wind turbine technologies have received considerable attention.For the coupled simulation of semisubmersible floating offshore wind energy,the platform is usually considered a rigid model,which could affect the calculation accuracy of the dynamic responses.The dynamic responses of a TripleSpar floating offshore wind turbine equipped with a 10 MW offshore wind turbine are discussed herein.The simulation of a floating offshore wind turbine under regular waves,white noise waves,and combined wind-wave conditions is conducted.The effects of the tower and platform flexibility on the motion and force responses of the TripleSpar semisubmersible floating offshore wind turbine are investigated.The results show that the flexibility of the tower and platform can influence the dynamic responses of a TripleSpar semisubmersible floating offshore wind turbine.Considering the flexibility of the tower and platform,the tower and platform pitch motions markedly increased compared with the fully rigid model.Moreover,the force responses,particularly for tower base loads,are considerably influenced by the flexibility of the tower and platform.Thus,the flexibility of the tower and platform for the coupled simulation of floating offshore wind turbines must be appropriately examined.

Ghost-YOLO v8:An Attention-Guided Enhanced Small Target Detection Algorithm for Floating Litter on Water Surfaces

Addressing the challenges in detecting surface floating litter in artificial lakes,including complex environments,uneven illumination,and susceptibility to noise andweather,this paper proposes an efficient and lightweight Ghost-YOLO(You Only Look Once)v8 algorithm.The algorithmintegrates advanced attention mechanisms and a smalltarget detection head to significantly enhance detection performance and efficiency.Firstly,an SE(Squeeze-and-Excitation)mechanism is incorporated into the backbone network to fortify the extraction of resilient features and precise target localization.This mechanism models feature channel dependencies,enabling adaptive adjustment of channel importance,thereby improving recognition of floating litter targets.Secondly,a 160×160 small-target detection layer is designed in the feature fusion neck to mitigate semantic information loss due to varying target scales.This design enhances the fusion of deep and shallow semantic information,improving small target feature representation and enabling better capture and identification of tiny floating litter.Thirdly,to balance performance and efficiency,the GhostConv module replaces part of the conventional convolutions in the feature fusion neck.Additionally,a novel C2fGhost(CSPDarknet53 to 2-Stage Feature Pyramid Networks Ghost)module is introduced to further reduce network parameters.Lastly,to address the challenge of occlusion,a newloss function,WIoU(Wise Intersection over Union)v3 incorporating a flexible and non-monotonic concentration approach,is adopted to improve detection rates for surface floating litter.The outcomes of the experiments demonstrate that the Ghost-YOLO v8 model proposed in this paper performs well in the dataset Marine,significantly enhances precision and recall by 3.3 and 7.6 percentage points,respectively,in contrast with the base model,mAP@0.5 and mAP 0.5:0.95 improve by 5.3 and 4.4 percentage points and reduces the computational volume by 1.88MB,the FPS value hardly decreases,and the efficient real-time identification of floating debris on the water’s surface can be achieved costeffectively.

Restoration or Rehabilitation of the Faleme River Affected by Mining Activities: What Methods?

The Faleme River, a West Africa long transboundary stream (625 km) and abundant flow (>1100 million m3) is affected by severe erosion because of mining activities that takes place throughout the riverbed. To preserve this important watercourse and ensure the sustainability of its services, selecting and implementing appropriates restorations techniques is vital. In this context, the purpose of this paper was to present an overview of the actions and techniques that can be implemented for the restoration/rehabilitation of the Faleme. The methodological approach includes field investigation, water sampling, literature review with cases studies and SWOT analysis of the four methods presented: river dredging, constructed wetlands, floating treatment wetlands and chemical precipitation (coagulation and flocculation). The study confirmed the pollution of the river by suspended solids (TSS > 1100 mg/L) and heavy metals such as iron, zinc, aluminium, and arsenic. For the restoration methods, it was illustrated through description of their mode of operation and through some case studies presented, that all the four methods have proven their effectiveness in treating rivers but have differences in their costs, their sustainability (detrimental to living organisms or causing a second pollution) and social acceptance. They also have weaknesses and issues that must be addressed to ensure success of rehabilitation. For the case of the Faleme river, after analysis, floating treatment wetlands are highly recommended for their low cost, good removal efficiency if the vulnerability of the raft and buoyancy to strong waves and flow is under control.

Research on Cultural Consumption and Urban Integration of Floating Population

This paper examined the relationship between cultural consumption and the floating population’s integration into host cities based on data from China’s Seventh National Population Census and the 2018 China Migrants Dynamic Survey(CMDS).The findings indicate that improving the floating population’s consumption level and quality,especially the quality of development-oriented cultural consumption,can significantly improve the level of their integration.Moreover,development-oriented cultural consumption has a positive effect on the floating population’s integration and social participation,while entertainment-oriented cultural consumption facilitates their integration mainly by improving their sense of well-being.These findings could guide policymakers in developing targeted cultural consumption policies,implementing specific regional industry adjustments,and expanding domestic consumption demand.

Preparation and Properties of Spray Polyurea Elastomer for Aquaculture Foam Floating Balls

[Objectives] This study was conducted to develop a polyurea elastomer which can be sprayed on the surface of expanded polystyrene (EPS) floating balls, so as to improve the surface strength and service life of the floating balls. [Methods] The effects of the types and amounts of isocyanate, chain extenders and polyether polyols on the gelation rate, adhesion and wear resistance of polyurea elastomer were investigated, and it was finally determined the preparation process of polyurea elastomer using liquid isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and amino-terminated polyether (D2000) as the main raw materials, dimethylthiotoluene diamine (E300) as the chain extender and silica as the wear resistance modifier through two-step solution polymerization of prepolymerization and chain extension. [Results] The physical properties and chemical resistance tests of spray polyurea elastomer showed that it had good physical properties and acid and alkali resistance, and could meet the requirements of spraying and protection of EPS floating ball surface in marine environment. [Conclusions] Polyurea elastomer coating can improve the aging resistance, wear resistance and acid and alkali resistance of EPS floating balls, and prevent them from being fragile and floating randomly to form marine floating garbage which results in "white pollution".

Geographical Accessibility to Basic Infrastructures and Services in Rural Senegal: The Case of the Niakhar Area

Access to basic infrastructure and services is a factor in economic development and an important aspect in combatting social and spatial disparities. But this access is often subject to several constraints, including geographical accessibility. In this article, we aim to analyze the geographical accessibility to basic infrastructure and services in the Niakhar area, using the improved two step floating catchment area method and local spatial association indicators. The results reveal that the areas with high accessibility to health and education infrastructures and services are mainly located along the south-east and north-west gradient, while those with low accessibility are found in the south-west and north-east center. They also show high accessibility to trade services in the center of the study area.

缆绳破断条件下FPSO码头系泊系统安全性分析

为研究浮式生产储卸油船(Floating Production Storage and Offloading, FPSO)在码头舾装期间系泊系统的安全性,对某30万吨级FPSO的码头系泊系统在台风条件下单系泊缆破断后的安全性进行分析。基于模拟结果,分别计算了受力最大和受力第二大的缆绳破断后,码头系泊系统中剩余缆绳的张力和安全系数。结果表明:缆绳破断后,剩余缆绳的安全系数总体是减小的,但有部分剩余缆绳的最小安全系数有明显的上升;在系泊系统完整和破断条件下,安全系数最小的缆绳均为同一组缆绳;在一根缆绳破断后,码头系泊系统仍具有足够安全性。研究成果可为FPSO码头系泊系统安全评估提供一定参考。

半潜式平台浮体结构建造精度数据链管理系统

为解决半潜式平台浮体结构建造过程中产生的累积偏差问题,以陵水17-2浮式生产装置(Floating Production Unit,FPU)为研究对象,根据建造过程中产品精度控制要素的偏差传递关系建立浮体结构建造精度数据链模型。根据精度数据链中各关联要素之间的逻辑关系,研究开发面向FPU浮体结构建造精度过程控制的数据管理系统,可实现数据采集、数据分析、问题处理等功能之间的数据流向、数据加工、数据存储、数据重用的关联和解耦,以及实际生产过程的精度控制映射流程。研究成果对于其他类型海洋平台结构物的建造也具有一定的扩展适应性。