Hydroelastic Response Analysis of Mat-Like VLFS over A Plane Slope in Head Seas

Very large floating structures (VLFS) have an extremely large size of several kilometers in length, thus, the environment at one end of the platform may be different from that at the other end. The importance of such an inhomogeneous environment to the hydroelastic response of a VLFS is of obvious concern for practical application. Some studies have been carried out to investigate the effects of shoreline proximity, breakwaters and harbor walls. In this paper, the impact of the variable depth on the hydroelastic responses of a VLFS is investigated. For simplicity, an ascending plane slope is taken to simulate the varying bottom although the method is capable of treating a bottom of arbitrary variation. The long wave theory and the thin plate theory are employed to model the wave field and the mat-like VLFS respectively. The finite difference method is used to numerically solve the boundary value problem. The results for the zero inclination slope are compared with experimental data and an analytical method to validate the present numerical method. Finally the effect of the inclination of the slope on reflection and transmission coefficients and plate deflections are investigated thoroughly.

ALTERNATIVE MODEL FOR NONLINEAR WATER WAVES OVER ARBITRARY DEPTHS

To account for effects of nonlinearty on the wave-propagationcharacteristics, by using Green's second i-dentity a nonlinear consistent equation for water wavespropagating over arbitrary depths is derived by introducing a function as approximation to the exactvelocity protential function for the nonlinear governing equations, which can be simplified to tehlinear uniform mild-slope equation given by Zhang and Edge recently. In shallow water the equationreduces to a nonlinear equation of Boussinesq-type. In deep water the nonlinear dispersion relationfor Stokes expansion is found.

Design and experiment evaluation of furrow compaction device with opener for maize

The double-disc opener of maize precision seeder is an important component which affects sowing quality.After the double-disc opening operation,there will be many unfavorable phenomena such as a W-shaped bottom with pointed ridge,returning soil to furrow,loose and rough furrow sidewall,and large soil blocks in the furrow bottom.These phenomena often cause the problems of poor sowing depth consistency and seed spacing uniformity.In order to solve the above problems,the furrow compaction device with opener was designed to compact and reshape the original seed furrow,eventually forming a smooth and flat V-shaped seed furrow.Through theoretical calculations and kinematic analysis,the main structural parameters of the device were limited to a small range:the spring stiffness coefficient k=0.96-4.19 N/mm and the angle of the furrow compaction wheelφ=30°-60°.In the soil-bin experiment,the rotary combination design was adopted to study the effects of the parameters of the furrow compaction device with opener on the seeds location variation.The regression model of two factors with respect to each indicator was established in the Design-Expert software,revealing the effects of two factors on the indicators.Finally,the optimal structural parameters obtained were:the spring stiffness coefficient k=4.0 N/mm,and the angle of furrow compaction wheelφ=42.4°.The field test was carried out to verify the effect of the furrow compaction device with opener on the performance of precision seeder.The results showed that the average values of the sowing depth variable coefficient,the lateral deviation and the seed spacing variable coefficient respectively were 5.77%,5.1 mm and 9.54%in the treatment of the furrow compaction device with opener.All indicators were superior to the traditional double-disc opener.This research can provide references for the design of furrow opening device and maize precision seeder.