Numerical Investigations on the Transient Behavior of Sand Waves in Beibu Gulf Under Normal and Extreme Sea Conditions

In this study, a morphodynamic numerical model is established with the Regional Ocean Modeling System(ROMS)to investigate the transient behavior of sand waves under realistic sea conditions. The simulation of sand wave evolution comprises two steps: 1) a regional-scale model is configured first to simulate the ocean hydrodynamics, i.e., tides and tidal currents, and 2) the transient behavior of sand waves is simulated in a small computational domain under the time-variant currents extracted from the large model. The evolution of sand waves on the continental shelf in the Beibu Gulf is specifically investigated. The numerical results of the two-year evolution of sand waves under normal sea conditions compare well with the field survey data. The transient behavior of sand waves in individual months shows that the sand waves are more stable in April and October than that in other months, which can be selected as the windows for seabed operations. The effects of sediment properties, including settling velocity, critical shear stress and surface erosion rate, on sand wave evolution are also analyzed. Then, the typhoon-induced currents are further superimposed on the tidal currents as the extreme weather conditions. Sand waves with the average wavelength generally have more active behavior than smaller or larger sand waves. The characteristics of the evolution of sand waves in an individual typhoon process are quite different for different hydrodynamic combinations. For the storm conditions, i.e., the real combination and maximum combination cases, the sand waves experience a significant migration together with a damping in height due to the dominant suspended sediment transport. For the mild conditions, i.e., the pure tidal current and minimum combination cases, the sand waves migrate less, but the heights continue growing due to the dominant bedload transport.

Dynamic Response of Offshore Wind Turbine on 3×3 Barge Array Floating Platform under Extreme Sea Conditions

Offshore wind farm construction is nowadays state of the art in the wind power generation technology.However,deep water areas with huge amount of wind energy require innovative floating platforms to arrange and install wind turbines in order to harness wind energy and generate electricity.The conventional floating offshore wind turbine system is typically in the state of force imbalance due to the unique sway characteristics caused by the unfixed foundation and the high center of gravity of the platform.Therefore,a floating wind farm for 3×3 barge array platforms with shared mooring system is presented here to increase stability for floating platform.The NREL 5 MW wind turbine and ITI Energy barge reference model is taken as a basis for this work.Furthermore,the unsteady aerodynamic load solution model of the floating wind turbine is established considering the tip loss,hub loss and dynamic stall correction based on the blade element momentum(BEM)theory.The second development of AQWA is realized by FORTRAN programming language,and aerodynamic-hydrodynamic-Mooring coupled dynamics model is established to realize the algorithm solution of the model.Finally,the 6 degrees of freedom(DOF)dynamic response of single barge platform and barge array under extreme sea condition considering the coupling effect of wind and wave were observed and investigated in detail.The research results validate the feasibility of establishing barge array floating wind farm,and provide theoretical basis for further research on new floating wind farm.

Nonlinear Dynamic Characteristics of the Vectored Thruster AUV in Complex Sea Conditions

The mobility of the vectored thruster AUV in different environment is the important premise of control system design. The new type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with rudders and vectored thrusters which are combined to control the course is studied. Firstly, Euler angles representation and quaternion method are applied to establish six-DOF kinematic model respectively, then Newton second law and Lagrangian approach are used to deduce the vectored thruster AUV’s nonlinear dynamic equations with six degrees of freedom (DOF) respectively in complex sea conditions based on the random wave theory according to the structural and kinetic characteristics of the vectored thruster AUV in this paper. The kinematic models and dynamic models based on different theories have the same expression and conclusion, which shows that the kinematic models and dynamic models of the vectored thruster AUV are accurate. The Runge-Kutta arithmetic is used to solve the dynamic equations, which not only can simulate the motions such as cruise and hover but also can describe the vehicle’s low-frequency and high-frequency motion. The results of computation show that the mobility of the vectored thruster AUV in interference-free environment and the integrated signals including low-frequency motion signal and high-frequency motion signal in environmental disturbance accord with practical situation, which not only solve the problem of especial singularities when the pitch angle θ = ±90° but also clears up the difficulties of computation and display of the coupled nonlinear motion equations in complex sea conditions. Moreover, the high maneuverability of the vectored thruster AUV equipped with rudders and vectored thrusters is validated, which lays a foundation for the control system design.

Nonlinear trajectory tracking control of a new autonomous underwater vehicle in complex sea conditions

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) navigating in complex sea conditions usually require a strong control system to keep the fastness and stability. The nonlinear trajectory tracking control system of a new AUV in complex sea conditions was presented. According to the theory of submarines,the six-DOF kinematic and dynamic models were decomposed into two mutually non-coupled vertical and horizontal plane subsystems. Then,different sliding mode control algorithms were used to study the trajectory tracking control. Because the yaw angle and yaw angle rate rather than the displacement of the new AUV can be measured directly on the horizontal plane,the sliding mode control algorithm combining cross track error method and line of sight method was used to fulfill its high-precision trajectory tracking control in the complex sea conditions. As the vertical displacement of the new AUV can be measured,in order to achieve the tracking of time-varying depth signal,a stable sliding mode controller was designed based on the single-input multi-state system,which took into account the characteristic of the hydroplane and the amplitude and rate constraints of the hydroplane angle. Moreover,the application of dynamic boundary layer can improve the robustness and control accuracy of the system. The computational results show that the designed sliding mode control systems of the horizontal and vertical planes can ensure the trajectory tracking performance and accuracy of the new AUV in complex sea conditions. The impacts of currents and waves on the sliding mode controller of the new AUV were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively by comparing the trajectory tracking performance of the new AUV in different sea conditions,which provides an effective theoretical guidance and technical support for the control system design of the new AUV in real complex environment.

Research on the falling film flow and heat transfer characteristics of FLNG spiral wound heat exchanger under sea conditions

As the key equipment of floating liquefied natural gas(FLNG)process,the performance of spiral wound heat exchanger(SWHE)influences operation costs and reliability of the whole system.The sea conditions destroy the falling film flow state of the refrigeration and then affect the heat transfer performance of FLNG SWHE.In order to design and optimize the SWHE,a cryogenic experimental device of FLNG process and a numerical model of falling film flow have been constructed to study the effects of sea conditions on the falling film flow and heat transfer characteristics of SWHE.The cryogenic experimental results show that the pitching conditions have larger effects on the heat transfer performance than yawing.Under the pitching angle of 7°,the natural gas temperature and gaseous refrigerant temperature increase by 3.22°C and 7.42°C,respectively.The flow rates of refrigerant and feed natural gas have a great impact on the heat transfer performance of SWHE under pitching and compound sloshing conditions.When the tilt angle increases to 9°,the tube structure with outer diameter D=8 mm and pipe spacing S=4 mm is recommended to reduce the drying area of the pipe wall surface.

Research on the Distance of the Active Sonar under the Effects of the Thermocline

The existence of thermocline changes the acoustic structure and effects the direction of the stared rays. This paper analyzes the working processs of the active sorer, and the mathematical models. The detection probaility of the active sonar under thenmoline is studied. First, the detection distance without thermocline is estimat- ed, then the effect of thermocline＇s depth and sound velocity changes on detecting submarine probability are discussed, and based on this, the effects of the sea condition on searching submarine probability is discussed, lastly the distance of active sonar is calculatod under thermocline. The results indicate that tufter thennocline, the distance of the active sonar becomes obvious short, and with the sea condition becoming rough, the effect is more dear.

Safety Analysis and Optimization on Ship⁃Borne Vehicle Mooring

Aiming at the mooring stability of the ship⁃borne vehicles and the safety of steel chain links under high sea condition,the rigid⁃flexible coupling dynamics model of deck⁃vehicle⁃mooring chain was established,the load characteristics of the mooring chain under class⁃9 sea state were obtained.The failure mode of the chain link and the influence law of the torsion angle on the stress distribution was obtained.Based on Miner's linear cumulative damage theory,the fatigue life of the mooring chain link was analyzed using the corrected mooring link S-N curve.The existing safety hazards were pointed out.The optimization of the mooring scheme was proposed.The conclusions are as follows:1)The mooring scheme can meet the mooring stability requirements of vehicles under high sea condition.2)The failure mode on the outside of the link crown was mainly tensile failure,and the failure mode on the inside is mainly contact fatigue failure under compression.3)The torsion angle had a significant effect on the stress situation of the chain link.When it exceeds 15 degrees,it will no longer meet the strength requirements.4)Through the optimization of the mooring scheme,the fatigue life of the steel chain link has been significantly increased.

Hydrodynamic Characteristics of New Floating Wind-Wave Energy Combined Power Generation Devices Under Typhoon-Wave-Current Coupling

The South China Sea is rich in wind and wave energy resources,and the wind-wave combined power generation device is currently in the concept research and development stage.In recent years,extreme sea conditions such as super typhoons have frequently occurred,which poses a serious challenge to the safety of offshore floating platforms.In view of the lack of safety analysis of wind-wave combined power generation devices in extreme sea conditions at present,this paper takes the OC4-WEC combined with semi-submersible wind turbine(Semi-OC4)and the oscillating buoy wave energy converter as the research object,and establishes a mesoscale WRF-SWANFVCOM(W-S-F)real-time coupling platform based on the model coupling Toolkit(MCT)to analyze the spatial and temporal evolution of wind-wave-current in offshore wind farms during the whole process of super typhoon“Rammasun”transit.Combined with the medium/small scale nested method,the flow field characteristics of OC4-WEC platform are analyzed.The results show that the simulation accuracy of the established W-S-F platform for typhoon track is 42.51%higher than that of the single WRF model.Under the action of typhoon-wave-current,the heave motion amplitude of OC4-WEC platform is reduced by 38.1%,the surge motion amplitude is reduced by 26.7%,and the pitch motion amplitude is reduced by 23.4%.

Analysis and innovation of key technologies for autonomous underwater vehicles

As the mission needs of the autonomous underwater vehicles(AUV) have become increasingly varied and complex,the AUVs are developing in the direction of systematism, multifunction, and clustering technology, which promotes the progress of key technologies and proposes a series of technical problems. Therefore, it is necessary to make systemic analysis and in-depth study for the progress of AUV's key technologies and innovative applications. The multi-functional mission needs and its key technologies involved in complex sea conditions are pointed out through analyzing the domestic and foreign technical programs, functional characteristics and future development plans. Furthermore, the overall design of a multi-moving state AUV is proposed. Then, technical innovations of the key technologies, such as thrust vector, propeller design, kinematics and dynamics, navigation control, and ambient flow field characteristics, are made, combining with the structural characteristics and motion characteristics of the new multi-moving state AUV. The results verify the good performance of the multi-moving state AUV and provide a theoretical guidance and technical support for the design of new AUV in real complex sea conditions.

Model of Airflow Field on the Deck for Shipborne Helicopter Flight Dynamics Analysis

For the research of helicopter/ship dynamic interface,the method of combining steady flow and stochastic flow is adopted to establish a flow field model applied to the flight dynamics analysis of shipborne helicopter.The steady flow is calculated by computational fluid dynamics(CFD)method,while the stochastic flow is composed of the compensation velocity derived from ship motion and turbulence above the deck.The accuracy of the proposed flow field model is verified by comparing the helicopter response in the proposed flow field with the results calculated by US Army′s Military Specifications(MIL)model which is commonly used in engineering.Meanwhile,it also shows the proposed flow field model is more appliable to flight dynamics analysis of shipborne helicopter.On that the basis,ship deck flow field is simulated at different sea conditions by adjusting the wind speed on the deck,mother ship movement and shipboard turbulence,etc.And helicopter angular rate response is calculated.The results show that the difference of dynamic stability between helicopter′s roll and pitch leads to the facts that the influence of above factors on the helicopter′s roll angular rate response is greater than that of pitch angular rate,that the frequency and amplitude of mother ship roll motion are much greater than those of pitch motion,and that the disturbance caused by roll motion on the air has greater influence on the helicopter response.The shipboard turbulence is the main disturbance factor that influences helicopter flight stability and its intensity determines the amplitudes of angular rate response.