An overview of the prediction methods for roll damping of ships

Falzarano, Jeffrey,Somayajula, Abhilash,Seah, Robert Techno-Press 2015 Ocean systems engineering Vol.5 No.2

Of all the six degrees of freedom, the roll motion of a ship is the most poorly understood and displays complicated phenomena. Due to the low potential wave damping at the natural frequency, the effective analysis of ship roll dynamics comes down to the accurate estimation of the viscous roll damping. This paper provides overview of the importance of roll damping and an extensive literature review of the various viscous roll damping prediction methods applied by researchers over the years. The paper also discusses in detail the current state of the art estimation of viscous roll damping for ship shaped structures. A computer code is developed based on this method and its results are compared with experimental data to demonstrate the accuracy of the method. While some of the key references describing this method are not available in English, some others have been found to contain typographic errors. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive summary of the state of the art method in one place for future reference.

Assessment of the potential for the design of marine renewable energy systems

Duthoit, Maxime,Falzarano, Jeffrey Techno-Press 2018 Ocean systems engineering Vol.8 No.2

The assessment of the potential for the design of marine renewable energy systems is reviewed and the current situation for marine renewable energy is promising. The most studied forms of marine renewable energy are ocean wind energy, ocean wave energy and tidal energy. Wind turbine generators include mostly horizontal axis type and vertical axis type. But also more exotic ideas such as a kite design. Wave energy devices consist of designs converting wave oscillations in electric power via a power take off equipment. Such equipment can take multiple forms to be more efficient. Nevertheless, the technology alone cannot be the only step towards marine renewable energy. Many other steps must be overcome: policy, environment, manpower as well as consumption habits. After reviewing the current conditions of marine renewable energy development, the authors analyzed the key factors for developing a strong marine renewable energy industry and pointed out the huge potential of marine renewable energy.

A genetic algorithms optimization framework of a parametric shipshape FPSO hull design

Xie, Zhitian,Falzarano, Jeffrey Techno-Press 2021 Ocean systems engineering Vol.11 No.4

An optimization framework has been established and applied to a shipshape parametric FPSO hull design. A single point moored (SPM) shipshape floating system suffers a significant level of the roll motion in both the wave frequencies and low wave frequencies, which presents a coupling effect with the horizontal weathervane motion. To guarantee the security of the operating instruments installed onboard, a parametric hull design of an FPSO has been optimized with improved hydrodynamics performance. With the optimized parameters of the various hull stations' longitudinal locations, the optimization through Genetic Algorithms (GAs) has been proven to provide a significantly reduced level of the 1st-order and 2nd-order roll motion. This work presents a meaningful framework as a reference in the process of an SPM shipshape floating system's design.

An optimization framework of a parametric Octabuoy semi-submersible design

Xie, Zhitian,Falzarano, Jeffrey The Society of Naval Architects of Korea 2020 International Journal of Naval Architecture and Oc Vol.12 No.-

An optimization framework using genetic algorithms has been developed towards an automated parametric optimization of the Octabuoy semi-submersible design. Compared with deep draft production units, the design of the shallow draught Octabuoy semi-submersible provides a floating system with improved motion characteristics, being less susceptible to vortex induced motions in loop currents. The relatively large water plane area results in a decreased natural heave period, which locates the floater in the wave period range with more wave energy. Considering this, the hull design of Octabuoy semi-submersible has been optimized to improve the floater's motion performance. The optimization has been conducted with optimized parameters of the pontoon's rectangular cross section area, the cone shaped section's height and diameter. Through numerical evaluations of both the 1st-order and 2nd-order hydrodynamics, the optimization through genetic algorithms has been proven to provide improved hydrodynamic performance, in terms of heave and pitch motions. This work presents a meaningful framework as a reference in the process of floating system's design.

A comparative assessment of approximate methods to simulate second order roll motion of FPSOs

Somayajula, Abhilash,Falzarano, Jeffrey Techno-Press 2017 Ocean systems engineering Vol.7 No.1

Ship shaped FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading) units are the most commonly used floating production units to extract hydrocarbons from reservoirs under the seabed. These structures are usually much larger than general cargo ships and have their natural frequency outside the wave frequency range. This results in the response to first order wave forces acting on the hull to be negligible. However, second order difference frequency forces start to significantly impact the motions of the structure. When the difference frequency between wave components matches the roll natural frequency, the structure experiences a significant roll motion which is also termed as second order roll. This paper describes the theory and numerical implementation behind the calculation of second order forces and motions of any general floating structure subjected to waves. The numerical implementation is validated in zero speed case against the commercial code OrcaFlex. The paper also describes in detail the popular approximations used to simplify the computation of second order forces and provides a discussion on the limitations of each approximation.

Energy extraction from the motion of an oscillating water column

Wang, Hao,Falzarano, Jeffrey M. Techno-Press 2013 Ocean systems engineering Vol.3 No.4

An Oscillating Water Column (OWC) is a relatively practical and convenient device that converts wave energy to a usable form, which is electricity. The OWC is kept inside a fixed truncated vertical cylinder, which is a hollow structure with one open end submerged in the water and with an air turbine at the top. This research adopts potential theory and Galerkin methods to solve the fluid motion inside the OWC. Using an air-water interaction model, OWC design for energy extraction from regular wave is also explored. The hydrodynamic coefficients of the scattering and radiation potentials are solved for using the Galerkin approximation. The numerical results for the free surface elevation have been verified by a series of experiments conducted in the University of New Orleans towing tank. The effect of varying geometric parameters on the response amplitude operator (RAO) of the OWC is studied and modification of the equation for evaluating the natural frequency of the OWC is made. Using the model of air-water interaction under certain wave parameters and OWC geometric parameters, a computer program is developed to calculate the energy output from the system.

Parametric roll of container ships in head waves

Moideen, Hisham,Falzarano, Jeffrey M.,Sharma, S.Abhilash Techno-Press 2012 Ocean systems engineering Vol.2 No.4

Analysis of ship parametric roll has generally been restricted to simple analytical models and sophisticated time domain simulations. Simple analytical models do not capture all the critical dynamics while time-domain simulations are often time consuming to implement. The model presented in this paper captures the essential dynamics of the system without over simplification. This work incorporates various important aspects of the system and assesses the significance of including or ignoring these aspects. Special consideration is given to the fact that a hull form asymmetric about the design waterline would not lead to a perfectly harmonic variation in metacentric height. Many of the previous works on parametric roll make the assumption of linearized and harmonic behaviour of the time-varying restoring arm or metacentric height. This assumption enables modelling the roll motion as a Mathieu equation. This paper provides a critical assessment of this assumption and suggests modelling the roll motion as a Hills equation. Also the effects of non-linear damping are included to evaluate its effect on the bounded parametric roll amplitude in a simplified manner.

The effect of small forward speed on prediction of wave loads in restricted water depth

Guha, Amitava,Falzarano, Jeffrey Techno-Press 2016 Ocean systems engineering Vol.6 No.4

Wave load prediction at zero forward speed using finite depth Green function is a well-established method regularly used in the offshore and marine industry. The forward speed approximation in deep water condition, although with limitations, is also found to be quite useful for engineering applications. However, analysis of vessels with forward speed in finite water depth still requires efficient computing methods. In this paper, a method for analysis of wave induced forces and corresponding motion on freely floating three-dimensional bodies with low to moderate forward speed is presented. A finite depth Green function is developed and incorporated in a 3D frequency domain potential flow based tool to allow consideration of finite (or shallow) water depth conditions. First order forces and moments and mean second order forces and moments in six degree of freedom are obtained. The effect of hull flare angle in predicting added resistance is incorporated. This implementation provides the unique capability of predicting added resistance in finite water depth with flare angle effect using a Green function approach. The results are validated using a half immersed sphere and S-175 ship. Finally, the effect of finite depth on a tanker with forward speed is presented.

An optimization framework of a parametric Octabuoy semi-submersible design

Xie, Zhitian,Falzarano, Jeffrey The Society of Naval Architects of Korea 2020 International Journal of Naval Architecture and Oc Vol.12 No.1

An optimization framework using genetic algorithms has been developed towards an automated parametric optimization of the Octabuoy semi-submersible design. Compared with deep draft production units, the design of the shallow draught Octabuoy semi-submersible provides a floating system with improved motion characteristics, being less susceptible to vortex induced motions in loop currents. The relatively large water plane area results in a decreased natural heave period, which locates the floater in the wave period range with more wave energy. Considering this, the hull design of Octabuoy semi-submersible has been optimized to improve the floater's motion performance. The optimization has been conducted with optimized parameters of the pontoon's rectangular cross section area, the cone shaped section's height and diameter. Through numerical evaluations of both the 1st-order and 2nd-order hydrodynamics, the optimization through genetic algorithms has been proven to provide improved hydrodynamic performance, in terms of heave and pitch motions. This work presents a meaningful framework as a reference in the process of floating system's design.

Non-Gaussian analysis methods for planing craft motion

Somayajula, Abhilash,Falzarano, Jeffrey M. Techno-Press 2014 Ocean systems engineering Vol.4 No.4

Unlike the traditional displacement type vessels, the high speed planing crafts are supported by the lift forces which are highly non-linear. This non-linear phenomenon causes their motions in an irregular seaway to be non-Gaussian. In general, it may not be possible to express the probability distribution of such processes by an analytical formula. Also the process might not be stationary or ergodic in which case the statistical behavior of the motion to be constantly changing with time. Therefore the extreme values of such a process can no longer be calculated using the analytical formulae applicable to Gaussian processes. Since closed form analytical solutions do not exist, recourse is taken to fitting a distribution to the data and estimating the statistical properties of the process from this fitted probability distribution. The peaks over threshold analysis and fitting of the Generalized Pareto Distribution are explored in this paper as an alternative to Weibull, Generalized Gamma and Rayleigh distributions in predicting the short term extreme value of a random process.