Irregular Wave Tests Research Articles

Flow characteristics of the rip current system adjacent to a coastal vertical structure for irregular waves

Rip currents are common hazards found on many beaches around the world. The present research examines the rip current flow features adjacent to a coastal vertical structure with total reflection function to the incident waves. The laboratory experiments were conducted over the planar beach for both regular and irregular waves to explore the specific phenomenon for the irregular waves, and a higher-order Boussinesq equation model was adopted in the simulations to analyze the formation mechanism of the flow features. The study results show that, the standing wave pattern for the irregular wave is much weaker than that for the regular wave with inducing only one apparent node rip at the first node line in the reflection wave area. Moreover, the specific “single-vortex” flow pattern was formed in the crossing wave field for the irregular wave tests. This specific flow pattern is found essentially induced by the larger wave reflection rate of the vertical structure, which leads to the strong lateral flow against the downstream longshore current. This specific flow pattern prefers to present for the smaller wave incident angles and larger wave heights and periods, and leads to the feeding flow volume rates discharged more in the form of lateral flow. The C-shaped lateral flow is found mainly induced by the longshore gradient of the wave set-up instead of the non-uniform wave radiation stress nearshore.

Study on Effectiveness of Solitary-Wave-Like Form Based on Overtopping Data from Irregular Wave Tests

Study on Effectiveness of Solitary-Wave-Like Form Based on Overtopping Data from Irregular Wave Tests

Theoretical and experimental study of the high-frequency nonlinear dynamic response of a 10 MW semi-submersible floating offshore wind turbine

To further investigate the hydrodynamic performance of a novel 10 MW semi-submersible floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) OUCwind and the dynamic response of the FOWT, especially the high-frequency dynamic response induced by the high-order high-frequency hydrodynamic loads, an experimental study for OUCwind is carried out. A novel regular wave condition design method is proposed, i.e., making incidence wave periods that exactly meet an integer multiple of the natural period of the wind turbine, to stimulate the structural resonance of the tower. To determine the natural period of the wind turbine with an elastic boundary, an irregular wave test is carried out and the natural period of the wind turbine with the elastic boundary is proved to be 3 s. Different parts of the FOWT model are verified to satisfy the corresponding scale similarity through a series of validation tests. The hydrodynamic performance of OUCwind is investigated. Linear response is obtained by applying the band-pass filter to the total response. The pitch motions have apparent high-frequency components aligned with the natural frequency of the wind turbine under the environmental conditions with a wave periods of 6 s. For surge and heave motion, the linear component dominates these two responses and the effect of the high-frequency component on these two responses is negligible. The second-order doubling and third-order tripling wave effects have a tremendous impact on the tower-top shear force and mooring line tension. The experimental data providing high-frequency dynamic responses up to the quadruple order can be used for the validation and correction of mid-fidelity and high-fidelity numerical models. Finally, the mechanisms of the generation of the high-frequency dynamic response of the FOWT are also concluded in an illustrative form.

Intelligent prediction of wave loads based on multi-source data-driven methods

ABSTRACT High-fidelity wave-load tests is pivotal in the design and development of modern ship structures. Nonetheless, the prohibitive cost of conducting such tests limits their applicability. A wave-load data fusion method was implemented using the model test data from a typical displacement-type ship to generalise the small sample test, and a multi-source data characterisation and model parameter optimisation method were established to achieve efficient wave-load (wave frequency and slamming superposition) prediction. Using multi-source data, a multi-fidelity wave-load prediction (MFWLP) model was constructed by combining numerical computation, regular wave tests (RWT), and irregular wave test (IWT) data based on transfer learning with a secondary correction wave load prediction under irregular wave conditions. The model was effectively employed in a ship wave-load engineering case. This study reveals that the adopted MFWLP model demonstrates adequate extrapolation and prediction capabilities, even with limited high-fidelity test samples. The discrepancy between the nonlinear wave load prediction and model test was found to be within 15%. Therefore, the proposed method can serve as a foundation for rapidly assessing ship wave loads across various sea conditions, especially under high sea states.

Coupling a nonlinear finite element mooring model with an overset CFD solver for dynamic analysis of floating structures in waves

An accurate prediction of motion responses of a moored floating structure requires high-fidelity coupled analysis between the structure and its mooring system in waves, which involves both mooring line dynamics and fluid dynamics. In this paper, we develop a nonlinear finite element dynamic mooring analysis module that allows large axial stretching of mooring lines under the open source CFD framework OpenFOAM, and couple it with an Overset CFD solver to establish a fully coupled finite element mooring-CFD analysis model for floating structures. The coupled model is advantageous over existing models in that it is able to deal with large axial mooring stretching and complex mesh motions induced by significant structure responses under severe operating conditions. The developed dynamic mooring analysis method is firstly validated against publicly available data. In order to validate the coupled model, a series of experimental tests were carried out for a semi-submersible platform moored by eight catenary lines under different operating conditions, including free decay, regular and irregular wave tests. The dynamic responses of the floating structure and mooring tension are analyzed and compared with experimental data. Results show that numerically predicted structure responses and mooring tension are generally in good agreement with experimental measurements. Meanwhile, the strongly nonlinear large-amplitude resonant motions generated by the interaction of irregular waves with the moored floating structure are also investigated. Comparisons reveal that the coupled model can accurately predict the resonant spectral peaks of the structure responses, indicating that the it is capable of simulating large-amplitude motions of moored floating structures. The coupled model developed in this paper can be further applied to study the survivability of moored floating structures under harsh sea conditions.

LSTM RNN-based excitation force prediction for the real-time control of wave energy converters

Wave energy is a type of abundant and dense renewable energy. Wave force prediction is a critical technology that influences power absorption efficiency in the real-time control of wave energy converter (WEC). Could wave elevation be used to predict wave excitation force directly by training artificial neural network? This method results in rapid and suitable prediction for real-time control. A long short-term memory recurrent neural network (LSTM RNN) algorithm is introduced to identify characteristics of wave excitation forces based on wave elevations. In this method, the wave elevations in front of the structure are measured to obtain sufficient time to actuate the control manipulation. A total of 180 regular wave and 12 irregular wave tests are conducted, and the LSTM RNN model is trained based on the experimental results. The performance of the LSTM algorithm is verified. According to the regular cases in the study, the LSTM prediction can identify high-order harmonic loads, and the anti-noise capability of the LSTM algorithm can filter random noises from the measure signals. In the irregular cases, the LSTM RNN algorithm performs effectively to predict the wave force excited on the structure using wave elevations measured by wave probes. The best combinations of the test setting parameters are determined to guide experimental tests and WEC prototypes.

Hydrodynamic and energy-harvesting performance of an isolated oscillating water column device: An experimental study

Most previous experimental studies on the hydrodynamic and aerodynamic performances of an oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter were conducted in a wave flume. In this study, an experimental study on an isolated OWC plant is carried out in a wave tank. The interactions between the OWC system and incident regular and irregular waves are analyzed by measuring the surrounding wave fields using a wave gauge array. The wave distribution patterns and reflection ratios of the OWC model are presented. In addition, the free-surface elevation, air pressure varying amplitude, turbine torque output, and relative capture width ratios and efficiencies in regular and irregular wave scenarios are measured and analyzed. The operating performances of the OWC model are analyzed and compared to the results derived from the flume tests. An overall performance reduction of over 20% can be observed in the wave tank tests. In addition, the representative results of the overall capture width ratio of the OWC model derived from irregular wave tests are corrected from the scaling effects caused by the similarity contradiction.

Sloshing Response of an Aquaculture Vessel: An Experimental Study

The sloshing response is crucial to the design and operation of aquaculture vessels and affects the safety of the culture equipment and the efficiency of the culture operation. A 1/50 scaled model was utilized to investigate the coupled sloshing response characteristics of a novel aquaculture vessel in a wave basin. Two wave directions (beam and head wave) and two filling levels (81.5% and 47.4%) are taken into account. The time-domain and frequency-domain characteristics of the sloshing response under the linear regular wave and extreme operational sea state were investigated using regular wave tests and irregular wave tests, respectively. The sloshing mechanism in the aquaculture tanks is complicated, due to the coupling effect between external waves, ship motion, and internal sloshing. In linear regular waves, the wave frequency mode dominates the sloshing response, which is larger under beam wave conditions than under head wave conditions and larger under half load conditions than full load conditions. The irregular wave test results confirmed the regular wave test conclusions, but the sloshing response has stronger nonlinearity, higher natural modes appeared, and the amplitude of the higher natural modes is also relatively larger.

Power and dynamic performance of a floating multi-functional platform: An experimental study

Hybrid platforms which integrate a floating offshore wind turbine and a wave energy converter are a promising technology as the wave energy converter can lead to a more stable platform and potentially lower costs. In the present work, a semi-submersible floating offshore wind turbine platform integrating with an array of wave energy converters (WECs) in the form of an oscillating water column (OWC) is presented and tested experimentally. The hydrodynamic properties of the multi-functional platform were investigated under a series of regular and irregular wave tests considering both operational and survival sea states. The influence of various parameters (including incident wave directions and chamber opening ratios) on the dynamic responses and the wave energy capturing were systematically studied. The introduction of the oscillating water column can not only capture wave energy but also reduce the heave, roll and pitch responses, especially for long waves kh ≤ 2.0, kh ≤ 1.4 and kh ≤ 1.76 respectively. The maximum reduction in heave, roll and pitch are 35 %, 55.4 % and 13.8 %, respectively. The chamber air orifice size was analyzed and optimized. From the survival sea state tests, it is found that the introduction of the OWC WECs decreases the maximum amplitudes of the platform motions in all five freedoms and the nacelle acceleration.

Investigation of Low-Frequency Pitch Motion Characteristics for KRISO Standard Offshore Structure (K-Semi) Moored with a Truncation Mooring System

In this study, a model test was carried out to evaluate the station-keeping performance of Korea Research Institute of the Ships and Ocean Engineering (KRISO) standard semi-submersible, K-Semi in the Deep Ocean Engineering Basin (DOEB). The test was performed using a 1/50 scaled model with 12 mooring lines. The water depth was set to 3.2 m using a moveable bottom structure and truncated mooring lines. The dynamic behavior of the K-Semi was examined using a free decay test and regular wave as well as irregular wave tests of 1800. Large surge, heave and pitch due to drift motion from second-order effect were observed. The reason for the excessive low-frequency pitch motion is attributed to the restoring force and moment related to the mooring system as excessive surge occurred. The numerical model of K-Semi with the truncated mooring system was tuned and calibrated using model test results such as free decay and regular wave tests. Through numerical analysis, the motion characteristics of the K-Semi were compared with irregular model test results. In the case of a semi-submersible using a mooring system, it is observed that excessive pitch motion due to vertical restoring force and moment may occur when large horizontal displacement occurs. The effect of low-frequency pitch motion related to surge motion is an important factor in upwell estimation as well as second-order motion in referred DNV-GL OTG13.

Design and Research of Slope-Pendulum Wave Energy Conversion Device

Wave energy is a kind of clean energy that is rich in reserves and has not been exploited on a large scale. The slope-pendulum wave energy conversion (S-PWEC) device has been optimized in structure and its capture efficiency has been increased. Taking the selection of the Zhejiang sea area as the research background, this paper performs numerical simulation and array WEC experimental testing of S-PWEC under 66 major sea conditions. The experimental results show that S-PWEC adds a slope structure to the bottom, which can effectively improve the motion response ability and resistance to extreme sea conditions. In the regular wave and irregular wave tests, the electron power output efficiency can be increased by 13.24% and 10.06%, respectively; in the array WEC experiment, the diffraction effect and radiation effect will affect the work of the array WEC, and the optimal arrangement distance can be selected to maximize the power output of the WEC system.

Modelling attenuation of irregular wave fields by artificial ice floes in the laboratory.

A summary is given on the utility of laboratory experiments for gaining understanding of wave attenuation in the marginal ice zone, as a complement to field observations, theory and numerical models. It is noted that most results to date are for regular incident waves, which, combined with the highly nonlinear wave-floe interaction phenomena observed and measured during experimental tests, implies that the attenuation of regular waves cannot necessarily be used to infer the attenuation of irregular waves. Two experiments are revisited in which irregular wave tests were conducted but not previously reported, one involving a single floe and the other a large number of floes, and the transmission coefficients for the irregular and regular wave tests are compared. The transmission spectra derived from the irregular wave tests agree with the regular wave data but are overpredicted by linear models due to nonlinear dissipative processes, regardless of floe configuration. This article is part of the theme issue 'Theory, modelling and observations of marginal ice zone dynamics: multidisciplinary perspectives and outlooks'.

Experimental and numerical investigation on an optimization method of heaving buoy wave energy converter arrays based on a given target wave spectrum

In this paper, an active optimization method of a wave energy converter (WEC) array that focuses on the characteristics of the random sea condition is proposed. Physical model tests were conducted in both regular and irregular wave conditions. Three representative regular wave cases were determined from the target wave spectrum using the method. A rigid cylindrical heaving buoy model with different constant power take-off (PTO) damping forces and drafts was applied to find the optimal isolated WEC parameter under each regular wave condition. Three equal buoys with respective optimized parameters were arranged rectilinearly into a WEC array for irregular wave tests. The power output of arrays with different settings are compared, indicating the advantages of the different optimized array and the significance of unit order. To amplify the optimization effect, a supplementary numerical investigation of a 5-body WEC array was carried out using the boundary element method (BEM). The results demonstrate the method and show the influence of the number of different units.

Design, dynamic modeling and wave basin verification of a Hybrid Wave–Current Energy Converter

Massive and high-density Marine and Hydrokinetic (MHK) energy is contained in the ocean, including waves, tidal streams, and ocean currents. Traditional MHK energy converters harvest energy from only a single MHK energy source, which does not fully exploit the energy potential that co-exists in multiple forms of MHK energy in the ocean. This paper presents the design and dynamics of a Hybrid Wave–Current Energy Converter (HWCEC) that can simultaneously convert both wave and current energy to electricity with a single Power Take-off (PTO) through the engagement and disengagement of the three one-way clutches. The critical design parameters are analyzed through modeling and simulation, including the transmission ratios, the electrical impedance, and the turbine-heave plate distance. Water basin tests in a wave–current tank were conducted, which shows the prototyped HWCEC can improve the electric power output by 38%–71% for regular waves and 79% for irregular waves, while providing a 70% reduction of the Peak to Average Ratio (PAR) of power compared to the baseline Wave Energy Converter (WEC). We further analyze the occurring percentages of the instant power of both WEC and HWCEC in irregular wave tests, shedding new insight on how HWCEC reduces the PAR.

An experimental study on characteristics of relative wave elevations around a tension leg platform in irregular waves

In this study, a series of model tests were performed to study the relative wave elevation responses around a tension leg platform (TLP) in extreme waves. It is well known that a high relative wave elevation causes a horizontal wave impact or a wave-in-deck impact which can result in a serious damage on both fixed and floating offshore structures. In particular, tension leg platform can be exposed to severe wave-in-deck impact events due to nonlinear wave amplifications inside the multiple columns. Irregular wave tests including the waves of 100-year return periods were carried out at Ocean Engineering Basin of KRISO. Focus is on the nonlinear characteristics of the relative wave elevations. Probability of exceedance as well as time series for relative wave elevation are suggested and discussion is made on the effect of location, wave and current. Also, wave-in-deck events are described based on the model test observations.

Dynamic characterization and performance evaluation of a 10-kW power take-off with mechanical motion rectifier for wave energy conversion

The power take-off (PTO) is a key component for wave energy converters. In this paper, a compact PTO with mechanical motion rectification rated at 10 kW is designed and prototyped, and characterized. A piecewise nonlinear dynamic model is established to describe its unique dynamic property. A linear hydraulic actuator is adopted in lab testing to drive the prototype and the unknown parameters of the dynamic model are identified. Further verification shows that the model can predict the dynamic performance of the PTO well. The test results show that the mechanical motion rectifier-based PTO can achieve overall energy transfer efficiency as high as 65% in regular waves even when the generator is working below the rated electric load and speed. In the irregular wave test, the PTO achieved the overall energy transfer efficiency of 54%, and the peak-to-average ratio acquired during the test is 12.5.

The 1:20 scaled hydraulic model test and field experiment of barge-type floating offshore wind turbine system

Objective of this study is to develop a barge-type floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) in order to face extreme environmental conditions in western Taiwan offshore water area. The prototype of FOWT considered here consists of (1) NERL 5 MW wind turbine, (2) a single steel column with a hub height of 90 m above sea level, (3) a square barge-type floating platform equipped with a damping pool and heave plate to improve the stability of the floating foundation, (4) catenary mooring system using anchor chain, and installation at a water depth of 70 m in the western Taiwan offshore water area.In order to verify the feasibility of the concept, a 1/20 scale model of the FOWT prototype was used by conducting hydraulic model tests in the large flume (300m × 5m× 5m) at Tainan Hydraulics Laboratory (THL), National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) and field experiments at the Anping Harbor. Hydraulic model tests include (1) regular wave test, with normal wave period from 5.7sec to 8.9sec, and long wave period from 9 s to 14sec. (2) irregular wave test, including normal sea condition, northeast monsoon sea condition, ten-year return period typhoon wave condition, and 50-year return period typhoon wave condition. Moreover, investigation of wind speed, wind direction, wave height, dynamic motion of FOWT, mooring tension, and rotor speed were conducted in the field experiment.After examining the motion of the barge-type offshore floating wind turbine, it was found that the pitch and the roll motions could satisfy the DNV standard. The tension of the mooring line did not exceed the minimum breaking load (MBL), which indicating the good stability of the barge-type FOWT proposed by this study.

Comparative investigation: Closed versus semi-closed vertical cylinder-shaped fish cage in waves

A comparative analysis between a closed cage (CC) and a semi-closed/open-bottom cage (OC) in regular, white-noise and irregular waves is presented. Both cages consist of a vertical circular free surface-piercing cylinder with an external toroidal floater. A main target is to examine experimentally and theoretically the similarities and differences of the hydrodynamic behavior between the two cages. Transfer functions obtained from regular and white-noise waves test show that the two cages have similar performance in surge motion, ovalizing deformations, interior wave elevation and mean drift loads in shorter waves (wavelength to cage diameter ratio λ/D<1). This is not the case for heave, with OC experiencing much larger heave. A clear sinkage (minus average heave) is also observed for OC, which is almost proportional to the square of the incident wave amplitude. The linear potential flow solver WAMIT can provide a reasonable prediction of surge and pitch motions, and mean drift loads for OC in shorter waves (λ/D<1.5), but is unsatisfactory in longer waves and, in general, for heave motion.From the analysis of irregular wave tests, there is a small difference in the standard deviations of the surge motion (wave-frequency component) and interior waves for the semi-closed and closed cages. The slow-drift component is dominant in surge for both cages, with OC having a smaller value due to larger viscous damping associated with flow separation at the bottom. Theoretical evaluations of standard deviations based on transfer functions from a white-noise test and from WAMIT are performed, assuming that the linear superposition principle applies. Reasonable agreement against results from experiments in irregular waves is achieved except for response variables with strong nonlinear effects.Survival conditions for both cages are determined through systematic evaluations. The platform freeboard is identified as the most critical parameter. The minimum freeboard for the closed and semi-closed cage should be at least 1.05 and 1.3 m, respectively, to operate at moderate exposure sea states. The standard deviation of vertical acceleration due to rigid body motions and interior waves could reach 0.72 m/s2 for both cages at high exposure sea states, which might be of concern for fish inside.

Physical model test validation of dynamic similarity truncation method for an internal turret mooring system

The mooring system needs to be truncated in physical model test to adapt to the limited dimensions of offshore basins. Especially, the drag force and inertial force are required to be included in the dynamic mooring truncation methods, and the method should be verified by model test comparison. Here an effective dynamic truncation method is proposed based on slender rod theory and multi-objective cuckoo search optimization algorithm. The line tensions in time domain are transferred into frequency domain to implement the dynamic similarity. The proposed process can promote optimization efficiency in a great extent. In order to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method, a horizontal truncation is carried out to an internal turret moored FPSO working in 420 m water depth. The model test in deep-water basin is performed with static tests and irregular wave tests. It can be found that model test and numerical results show consistence on the static stiffness characteristics and dynamic response. The comparison verifies the reliability and accuracy of the proposed truncation method well.

Study on Array Floating Platform for Wind Energy and Marine Space Optimization

The concept of multiline anchor, whose application is mainly considered in water depths beyond 100 m and analyzed only by numerical simulation, has been discussed for half a decade, yet previous studies have not conducted the wave basin experiment. Thus, this paper set this concept firstly with a shallow water mooring system designed for a Taiwan offshore water area, where the suitable water depth for floating offshore wind turbine is located from 50 to 100 m, and then conducted a 1:144 scaled model wave basin experiment to validate the results from numerical simulation. In this paper, the numerical model simulated and analyzed three identical DeepCwind OC4 semi-submersible platforms equipped with NREL 5MW wind turbines in OrcaFlex and the experiment carried out by using three 1:144 scaled semi-submersible platforms with equivalent disks which simulated different operations of wind thrusts. To consider the possible influence of the wake effect, the minimum turbines spacing was set at 750 m in a full scaled model and the length of mooring lines was redesigned according to the catenary theory. This paper utilized OrcaWave to calculate hydrodynamic parameters and input it into OrcaFlex to simulate the line tension and the three degrees of freedom (surge, heave, and pitch) of the platforms under regular and irregular wave tests, and coordinate with scaled model tests carried out in Tainan Hydraulics Laboratory (THL). In addition to the reduction in the number of anchors, the concept of multiline anchor was also discussed in this study for the spatial configuration of offshore wind farms. It shows that the wind farm composed of three floating wind turbines can reduce the ocean space by roughly 24% compared to that with a single-line anchor. According to the comparison of numerical and experimental results, this study finally optimized the mooring lines by changing the diameter to increase the stability and the threshold of Minimum Breaking Load (MBL) and proposed a multiline anchor configuration for shallow offshore water area in Taiwan based on the results obtained.