New Method for Predicting the Motion Responses of A Flexible Joint Multi-Body Floating System to Irregular Waves

A new hybrid method of frequency domain and time domain is developed in this paper to predict the motion responses of a flexibly joint multi-body floating system to irregular waves. The main idea of the method is that the three-dimensional frequency method is used to obtain the hydrodynamic coefficients and the response equations are solved in time domain step by step. All the forces can be obtained at the same time. The motions and nonlinear mooring forces of a box type six-body floating system are predicted. A comparison of the theoretical method-based Solutions with experimental results has shown good agreement.

Dynamic Analysis of A Pontoon-Separated Floating Bridge Subjected to A Moving Load

For the design and operation of a floating bridge, the understanding of its dynamic behavior under a moving load is of great importance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dynamic performances of a new type floating bridge, the pontoon-separated floating bridge, under the effect of a moving load. In the paper, a brief summary of the dynamic analysis of the floating bridge is first introduced. The motion equations for a pontoon-separated floating bridge, considering the nonlinear properties of connectors and vehicles＇ inertia effects, are proposed. The super-element method is applied to reduce the numerical analysis scale to solve the reduced equations. Based on the static analysis, the dynamic features of the new type floating bridge subjected to a moving load are investigated. It is found that the dynamie behavior of the pontoon-separated floating bridge is superior to that of the ribbon bridge by taking the nonlinearity of eonneetors into account.

Progressive failure processes of reinforced slopes based on general particle dynamic method

In order to resolve grid distortions in finite element method(FEM), the meshless numerical method which is called general particle dynamics(GPD) was presented to simulate the large deformation and failure of geomaterials. The Mohr-Coulomb strength criterion was implemented into the code to describe the elasto-brittle behaviours of geomaterials while the solid-structure(reinforcing pile) interaction was simulated as an elasto-brittle material. The Weibull statistical approach was applied to describing the heterogeneity of geomaterials. As an application of general particle dynamics to slopes, the interaction between the slopes and the reinforcing pile was modelled. The contact between the geomaterials and the reinforcing pile was modelled by using the coupling condition associated with a Lennard-Jones repulsive force. The safety factor, corresponding to the minimum shear strength reduction factor "R", was obtained, and the slip surface of the slope was determined. The numerical results are in good agreement with those obtained from limit equilibrium method and finite element method. It indicates that the proposed geomaterial-structure interaction algorithm works well in the GPD framework.

Statistical evaluation of five failure criteria for intact salt rock

Five multiparameter empirical criteria were exclusively evaluated by comparing them with the strength data covering various stress conditions to find out which failure criterion best fits the test data and describes the mechanical behavior of the salt rock sequence (halite,bedded composite specimens and anhydrite interlayers).Full-scale comparison of all criteria for the three rock types was conducted based on five standard statistics calculated from least squares curve-fitting,which measures both the goodness of fitting and the quality of future prediction.The results indicate that all five nonlinear criteria with a basic power form are efficient in predicting the strength trend in the low tension area as well as in the high compression area of the soft rocks.The parameters obtained for the bedded rock salt are somewhat in the ones for the "pure" rocks and are even closer to those obtained for the halite.The generalized Hoek-Brown criterion is proven to perform best to two rock strength data followed by one for the Bieniawski empirical criterion,thus is the best candidate for the analysis of the salt rock.The Sheorey empirical criterion consistently achieves an intermediate performance for all the three rocks.It seems that the superiority of the poly-axial criteria (the Mogi 1967 criterion and the N-type criterion) over the former three triaxial criteria no longer exists when applied to the conventional triaxial strength data.Besides,the method of tension cut-off was proposed to solve the ambiguity problem of the two poly-axial criteria in the tension field in the plane of the major (σ1) andminor principal stress (σ3).

Numerical Solution of Membrane Forces for A Free-Free Floating Plate with Large Deflection

Considering that the thickness of a pontoon-type very large floating structure (VLFS) is very small in comparison with the length and width, VLFS can be modeled as a thin plate. In theory, the displacements and the membrane forces of a plate with large deflection are all the functions of the second-order differentials of the Ariy stress function. With these characteristics considered, the Ariy stress function of a floating free-free plate is calculated by setting the virtual values of three of the corner points. The finite difference method is chosen to solve the problem. When the Ariy stress function of the plate is obtained, the membrane forces can easily be calculated. Comparisons between the forces induced by the membrane forces and by the fluid are considered. It is shown that the membrane forces can not be neglected in many cases.