A Mooring System Deployment Design Methodology for Vessels at Varying Water Depths

In this paper,a methodology for designing mooring system deployment for vessels at varying water depths is proposed.The Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II(NSGA-II)is combined with a self-dependently developed vessel-mooring coupled program to find the optimal mooring system deployment considering both station-keeping requirements and the safety of the mooring system.Two case studies are presented to demonstrate the methodology by designing the mooring system deployments for a very large floating structure(VLFS)module and a semi-submersible platform respectively at three different water depths.It can be concluded from the obtained results that the mooring system can achieve a better station-keeping ability with relatively shorter mooring line when deployed in the shallow water.The safety factor of mooring line is mainly dominated by the maximum instantaneous tension increment in the shallow water,while the pre-tension has a decisive influence on the safety factor of the mooring line in the deep water.

Modified Rayleigh Distribution of Wave Heights in Transitional Water Depths

This paper concerns the calculation of wave height exceedance probabilities for nonlinear irregular waves in transitional water depths, and a Transformed Rayleigh method is first proposed for carrying out the calculation. In the proposed Transformed Rayleigh method, the transformation model is chosen to be a monotonic exponential function, calibrated such that the first three moments of the transformed model match the moments of the true process. The proposed new method has been applied for calculating the wave height exceedance probabilities of a sea state with the surface elevation data measured at the Poseidon platform. It is demonstrated in this case that the proposed new method can offer better predictions than those by using the conventional Rayleigh wave height distribution model. The proposed new method has been further applied for calculating the total horizontal loads on a generic jacket, and its accuracy has once again been substantiated. The research findings gained from this study demonstrate that the proposed Transformed Rayleigh model can be utilized as a promising alternative to the well-established nonlinear wave height distribution models.

An Efficient Model for Transient Surface Waves in Both Finite and Infinite Water Depths

A numerical model is developed to simulate fully nonlinear extreme waves in finite and infinite water-depth wave tanks. A semi-mixed Enlerian-Lagrangian formulation is adopted and a higher-order boundary element method in conjunction with an image Green function is used for the fluid domain. The botmdary values on the free surface are updated at each time step by a fourth-order Runga-Kutta time-marching scheme at each time step. Input wave characteristics are specified at the upstream boundary by an appropriate wave theory. At the downstream boundary, an artificial damping zone is used to prevent wave reflection back into the computational domain. Using the image Green function in the whole fluid domain, the integrations on the two lateral walls and bottom are excluded. The simulation results on extreme wave elevations in finite and infinite water-depths are compared with experimental results and second-order analytical solutions respectively. The wave kinematics is also discussed in the present study.

Experimental Investigation on Vortex-Induced Vibration of Deep-Sea Risers of Different Excitation Water Depths

The vortex-induced vibration test of the deep-sea riser was carried out with different excitation water depths in the wave-current combined water flume.By dimensionally changing the multi-stage water depth and hydrodynamic parameters such as outflow velocity at various water depths,the dynamic response parameters such as dominant frequency,dimensionless displacement and vibration trajectory evolution process of the riser under different excitation water depths were explored to reveal the sensitive characteristics of the dynamic response of vortexinduced vibration of the risers under different excitation water depths.The results show that different excitation water depths will change the additional mass of the riser and the fluid damping and other parameters,which will affect the spatial correlation and stability of the vortex shedding behind the riser.In the lock-in region,the distribution range of the characteristic frequency becomes narrow and centered on the lock-in frequency.The increase of the excitation water depth gradually advances the starting point of the lock-in region of the riser,and at the same time promotes the excitation of the higher-order vibration frequency of the riser structure.Within the dimensionless excitation water depth,the dominant frequency and dimensionless displacement are highly insensitive to the excitation water depth at high flow velocity.The change of the excitation water depth will interfere with the correlation of the non-linear coupling of the riser.The“8-shaped”gradually becomes irregular,and the vibration trajectories of the riser show“O-shape”,“X-shape”and“Crescent-shape”.

ANALYTICAL MODELS OF FLOATING BRIDGES SUBJECTED BY MOVING LOADS FOR DIFFERENT WATER DEPTHS

There are two types of floating bridge such as discrete-pontoon floating bridges and continuous-pontoon floating bridges. Analytical models of both floating bridges subjected by raoving loads are presented to study the dynamic responses with hydrodynamic influence coefficients for different water depths. The beam theory and potential theory are introduced to produce the models. The hydrodynamic coefficients and dynamic responses of bridges are evaluated by the boundary element method and by the Galerkin method of weighted residuals, respectively. Considering causal relationship between the frequencies of the oscillation of floating bridges and the added mass coefficients, an iteration method is introduced to compute hydrodynamic frequencies. The results indicate that water depth has little influence upon the dynamic responses of both types of floating bridges, so that the effect of water depth can be neglected during the course of designing floating bridges.

Exploring spatial relationships between stream channel features,water depths and flow velocities during flash floods using HEC-GeoRAS and Geographic Information Systems

Water depths and flow velocities decisively influence the damage caused by flash floods.Geographic Information System(GIS)is a powerful and useful tool,allowing the spatial analysis of results obtained by hydraulic modelling,namely from the HEC-RAS/HEC-GeoRAS software.The GIS spatial analysis performed in this study seeks to explain and quantify the spatial relationships between the stream channel features and flow components during flash flood events.Despite these relationships are generically known,there are few studies exploring this subject in different geographic contexts.A 1D hydraulic model was applied in a small watershed in Portugal,providing good results in the definition of floodable areas,water depths and longitudinal velocities.No direct relationship was found between water depths and velocities in the floodable areas;however,negative strong correlations were found between the two flow components along the stream centerlines.Bed slope,channel and flood width,and roughness prove to be highly relevant on the longitudinal variations of water depths and velocities and on the location of maximum values.Increasing peak discharges and return periods(R;)can change the relationships between water depths and velocities at the same location.Results can be improved with more accurate elevation data for stream channels and floodplains.

Quantitative relationship between surface sedimentary diatoms and water depth in North-Central Bohai Bay,China

To study the quantitative relationship between surface sedimentary diatoms and water depth,67 surface samples were collected for diatom analysis on eight profiles with water depth variation from the muddy intertidal zone to the shallow sea area in North-Central Bohai Bay,China.The results showed that the distribution of diatoms changed significantly in response to the change in water depth.Furthermore,the quantitative relationship between the distribution of dominant diatom species,their assemblages,and the water depth was established.The water depth optima for seven dominant species such as Cyclotella striata/stylorum,Paralia sulcata,and Coscinodiscus perforatus and the water depth indication range of seven diatom assemblages were obtained in the study area above the water depth(elevation)of-10 m.The quantitative relationship between surface sedimentary diatoms and water depth provides a proxy index for diatom-paleo-water depth reconstruction in the strata in Bohai Bay,China.

DEPTH PREDICTION OF RAIN WATER ON ROAD SURFACE BASED ON ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK

A model based on the non-linear artificial neural network （ANN） is established to predict the thickness of the water film on road surfaces. The weight and the threshold can be determined by training test data, and the water film thickness on the road surface can be accurately predicted by the empirical verification based on sample data. Results show that the proposed ANN model is feasible to predict the water film thickness of the road surface.

EFFECT OF WATER DEPTH ON WIND-WAVE FREQUENCY SPECTRUM I. SPECTRAL FORM

Wen et al.'s method developed to obtain wind-wave frequency spectrum in deep water was used to derive the spectrum in finite depth water. The spectrum S(ω) (ω being angular frequency) when normalized with the zeroth moment m0 and peak frequency ω0, contains in addition to the peakness factor P= ω0S(ω0)/m0, a depth parameter ω= (2πm0)1/2/d (d being water depth), so the spectrum behavior can be studied for different wave growth stages and water depths.

Wave-Induced Loads on Very Large FPSOs at Restricted Water Depth

The effects of water depth on the wave-induced vertical bending moment and shearing force on a very large FPSO are studied by experiments and computations for regular and irregular waves. The restricted water depth composite Green function is employed to develop a program for the computation of the hydrodynamic coefficients of the very large FPSO at shallow water. A three-segment model with 1∶100 scale is tested in the State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University for the verification of the numerical method. The experimental and computational results show that the water depth has a substantial effect on wave-induced loads. The wave-induced vertical loads increase with the decrease of water depth for shallow water. Especially, for ultra-shallow water these loads increase very evidently with the decrease of water depth. The long-term prediction values of wave-induced vertical loads increase with the decrease of the ratio of water depth to draught. The long-term prediction values of wave-induced vertical loads are about 8% larger than those for deep water when the ratio of water depth to draught is 3.0. However, water depth hardly affects the long-term prediction values of wave-induced loads when the ratio of water depth to draught is larger than 5.0.

Effects of water depth and substrate color on the growth and body color of the red sea cucumber,Apostichopus japonicus

Three color variants of the sea cucumber,Apostichopus japonicus are recognized,the red one is highly valued in the market. When the red variant is cultured in ponds in China,its body color changes from red to celadon in 3–6 months. The effects of water depth and substrate color on the growth and body color of this animal were investigated. Juveniles of red A. japonicus were cultured in cages suspended at a range of water depths(20,50,100,150 and 200 cm). The specific growth rate of red sea cucumbers was significantly higher in animals cultured at deeper water layers compared with those grown at shallowers. Body weights were greatest for sea cucumbers cultured at a depth of 150 cm and their survival rates were highest at a depth of 200 cm. A scale to evaluate the color of red sea cucumbers(R value) was developed using a Pantone standard color card. All stocked animals in the 9-month trial retained a red color,however the red body color was much more intense in sea cucumbers cultured at shallower depths,while animals suspended in deeper layers became pale. In a separate trial,A. japonicus were cultured in suspended cages with seven different colored substrates. Substrate color had a significant effect on the growth and body-color of red A. japonicus. The yield were greatest for A. japonicus cultured on a yellow substrate,followed by green > white > orange > red > black and blue. All sea cucumbers in the 7-month trial retained a red color,although the red was most intense(highest R value) in animals cultured on a blue substrate and pale(lowest R value) for animals cultured on a green substrate.

Optimal Design of Equivalent Water Depth Truncated Mooring System Based on Baton Pattern Simulated Annealing Algorithm

The highest similarity degree of static characteristics including both horizontal and vertical restoring force-displacement characteristics of total mooring system, as well as the tension-displacement characteristics of the representative single mooring line between the truncated and full depth system are obtained by annealing simulation algorithm for hybrid discrete variables （ASFHDV, in short）. A“baton” optimization approach is proposed by utilizing ASFHDV. After each baton of optimization, if a few dimensional variables reach the upper or lower limit, the boundary of certain dimensional variables shall be expanded. In consideration of the experimental requirements, the length of the upper mooring line should not be smaller than 8 m, and the diameter of the anchor chain on the bottom should be larger than 0.03 m. A 100000 t turret mooring FPSO in the water depth of 304 m, with the truncated water depth being 76 m, is taken as an example of equivalent water depth truncated mooring system optimal design and calculation, and is performed to obtain the conformation parameters of the truncated mooring system. The numerical results indicate that the present truncated mooring system design is successful and effective.

Effect of seedling age and water depth on morphological and physiological aspects of transplanted rice under high temperature

To study the effect of high temperature, rice seedlings 20, 30, 40 and 50 d were kept at 5, 10, 15 and 20 cm water depth in a water pool. Meteorological findings indicated that water temperature varied up to 10 cm but became stable below this depth. Deep water inflicted higher tiller mortality, minimal increase in dry weight of aerial parts and leaf area, decrease in root length, and decrease in root dry weight especially at 20 cm water depth and produced an unbalanced T/R ratio (top versus root dry weight). However, deep water tended to increase plant length. These parameters, however, excel in shallow water. Older seedlings, with the exception of root dry weight, could not perform well compared to young seedlings in all physiological and morphological aspects. The study revealed that seedlings, particularly young ones, stand well in shallow water and can cope with high temperature.

Hybrid Model Testing Technique for Deep-Sea Platforms Based on Equivalent Water Depth Truncation

In this paper, an inner turret moored FPSO which works in the water of 320 m depth, is selected to study the socalled ＂passively-truncated ＋ numerical-simulation＂ type of hybrid model testing technique while the tnmcated water depth is 160 m and the model scale ）, = 80. During the investigation, the optimization design of the equivalent-depth truncated system is performed by using the similarity of the static characteristics between the truncated system and the full depth one as the objective function. According to the truncated system, the corresponding physical test model is made. By adopting the coupling time domain simulation method, the tnmcated system model test is numerically reconstructed to carefully verify the computer simulation software and to adjust the corresponding hydrodynamic parameters. Based on the above work, the numerical extrapolation to the full depth system is performed by using the verified computer software and the adjusted hydrodyrmmic parameters. The full depth system model test is then performed in the basin and the results are compared with those from the numerical extrapolation. At last, the implementation procedure and the key technique of the hybrid model testing of the deep-sea platforms are summarized and printed. Through the above investigations, some beneficial conclusions are presented.

Study of pores produced in underwater wet welding

This paper deals with the effect of water depth in the range of 10 m to 80 m upon the formation of pores produced during underwater wet welding. The results show that it is easy for the inner pores to occur owing to the particularity of the molten metal solidification that the outer pores begin to appear when the water depth increases to about 60 m, that the porosity increases and pore grows up as the water depth increases, and that pores are all hydrogen-containing ones through the examination of the variation of number of pores with the residual hydrogen and oxygen content in the weld metal.

Bioinspired Adaptive,Elastic,and Conductive Graphene Structured Thin-Films Achieving High-Efficiency Underwater Detection and Vibration Perception

Underwater exploration has been an attractive topic for understanding the very nature of the lakes and even deep oceans.In recent years,extensive efforts have been devoted to developing functional materials and their integrated devices for underwater information capturing.However,there still remains a great challenge for water depth detection and vibration monitoring in a high-efficient,controllable,and scalable way.Inspired by the lateral line of fish that can sensitively sense the water depth and environmental stimuli,an ultrathin,elastic,and adaptive underwater sensor based on Ecoflex matrix with embedded assembled graphene sheets is fabricated.The graphene structured thin film is endowed with favourable adaptive and morphable features,which can conformally adhere to the structural surface and transform to a bulged state driven by water pressure.Owing to the introduction of the graphene-based layer,the integrated sensing system can actively detect the water depth with a wide range of 0.3-1.8 m.Furthermore,similar to the fish,the mechanical stimuli from land(e.g.knocking,stomping)and water(e.g.wind blowing,raining,fishing)can also be sensitively captured in real time.This graphene structured thin-film system is expected to demonstrate significant potentials in underwater monitoring,communication,and risk avoidance.

Fast Evaluation of Time-Domain Green Function for Finite Water Depth

For computation of large amplitude motions of ships fastened to a dock, a fast evaluation scheme is implemented for computation of the time-domain Green function for finite water depth. Based on accurate evaluation of the Green function directly, a fast approximation method for the Green function is developed by use of Chebyshev polynomials. Examinations are carried out of the accuracy of the Green function and its derivatives from the scheme. It is shown that when an appropriate number of polynomial terms are used, very accurate approximation can be obtained.

The relationship between groundwater and natural vegetation in Qaidam Basin

To accurately evaluate ecological risks trigged by groundwater exploitation,it must be clarified the relationship between vegetation and groundwater.Based on remote sensing data sets MOD13Q1,groundwater table depth(WTD)and total dissolved solids(TDS),the relationship between groundwater and natural vegetation was analyzed statistically in the main plain areas of Qaidam Basin.The results indicate that natural vegetation is groundwater-dependent in areas where WTD is less than 5.5 m and TDS is less than 7.5 g/L.Aquatic vegetation,hygrophytic vegetation and hygrophytic saline-alkali tolerant vegetation are mainly distributed in areas with WTD<1.1 m.Salt-tolerant and mesophytic vegetation mainly occur in areas with WTD of 1.4-3.5 m,while the xerophytic vegetation isprimarily present in areas where WTD ranges from 1.4 m to 5.5 m.Natural vegetation does not necessarily depend on groundwater in areas with WTD>5.5 m.For natural vegetation,the most suitable water TDS is less than 1.5 g/L,the moderately suitable TDS is 1.5-5.0 g/L,the basically suitable TDS is 5.0-7.5 g/L,and the unsuitable TDS is more than 7.5 g/L.

Depth inversion in coastal water based on SAR image of waves

Wave-number spectrum technique is proposed to retrieve coastal water depths by means of Synthetic Aperture Radar （SAR） image of waves. Based on the general dispersion relation of ocean waves the wavelength changes of a surface wave over varying water depths can be derived from SAR. Approaching the analysis of SAR images of waves and using the general dispersion relation of ocean waves, this indirect technique of remote sensing bathymetry has been applied to a coastal region of Xiapu in Fujian Province, China. Results show that this technique is suitable for the coastal waters especially for the near-shore regions with variable water depths.

Multiple Nonlinear Regression Analysis for the Stability of Non-overtopping Perforated Quarter Circle Breakwater

Breakwaters have been built throughout the centuries for the coastal protection and the port development,but changes occurred in their layout and criteria used for the design.Quarter circle breakwater(QBW)is a new type evolved having advantages of both caisson type and perforated type breakwaters.The present study extracts the effect of change in the percentage of perforations on the stable conditions of seaside perforated QBW by using various physical models.The results were graphically analyzed using dimensionless parameters and it was concluded that there is a reduction in dimensionless stability parameter with an increase in steepness of the wave and change in water depth to the height of breakwater structure.Multiple non–linear regression analysis was done and the equation for the best fit curve with a higher regression coefficient was obtained by using Excel statistical software—XLSTAT.