Thesis (Ph. D.)--Universiteit Twente, 1987.

Slamming of marine planing craft is expected to arise due to the high speed nature of their operating conditions. High hydrodynamic forces are inevitably induced causing the shell plating to deflect, which in turn can influence the flow physics surrounding the hull. In order to study the hull’s hydroelastic response due to a slamming event, wedge drop experiments were performed with an aluminum wedge of 57 inches in length, 47 inches in breadth, and 20 degree deadrise with 1/4 in. thick unstiffened bottom panels. The elastic behavior of the hull plating was measured via two methods. The first method uses strain gages to analyze the wedge’s deadrise panel deflections, and the second method is a Stereoscopic- Digital Image Correlation (S-DIC) technique. In the present investigation, an S-DIC code has been developed and utilized to study the deflections and to advance the capabilities of future research. Comparisons are made between the methods and also with theoretical studies. The deflections measured are approximately 0.1 in. on a panel spanning 24.5 inches, and the predictions made using S-DIC and strain gages differ by approximately 23%.

<p>This thesis represents an attempt to reveal and explain the mysterious excitation sources which cause global wave induced vibrations of ships. The wave induced vibrations of the hull girder are referred to as springing when they are associated with a resonance phenomenon, and whipping when they are caused by a transient impact loading. Both phenomena excite the governing vertical 2-node mode and possibly higher order modes, and consequently increase the fatigue and extreme loading of the hull girder. These effects are currently disregarded in conventional ship design. The thesis focuses on the additional fatigue damage on large blunt ships.</p><p>The study was initiated by conducting an extensive literature study and by organizing an international workshop. The literature indicated that wave induced vibrations should be expected on any ship type, but full scale documentation (and model tests) was mainly related to blunt ships. While the theoretical investigation of whipping mostly focused on slender vessels with pronounced bow flare, full scale measurements indicated that whipping could be just as important for blunt as for slender ships. Moreover, all estimates dealing with the fatigue damage due to wave induced vibration based on full scale measurements before the year of 2000 were nonconservative due to crude simplifications. The literature on the actual importance of the additional fatigue contribution is therefore scarce.</p><p>The workshop was devoted to the wave induced vibrations measured onboard a 300m iron ore carrier. Full scale measurements in ballast condition were compared with numerical predictions from four state-of-the-art hydroelastic programs. The predicted response was unreliable, and the programs in general underestimated the vibration level. The excitation source was either inaccurately described or lacking. The prediction of sea state parameters and high frequency tail behavior of the wave spectra based on wave radars without proper setting and calibration was also questioned. The measurements showed that vibrations in ballast condition were larger than in the cargo condition, the vibration was more correlated with wind speed than wave height, head seas caused higher vibration levels than following seas, the vibration level towards beam seas decayed only slightly, and the damping ratio was apparently linear and about 0.5%. The additional vibration damage constituted 44% of the total measured fatigue loading in deck amidships in the North Atlantic iron ore trade, with prevailing head seas encountered in ballast condition.</p><p>Four hypotheses, which may contribute to explain the high vibration levels, were formulated. They include the effect of the steady wave field and the interaction with the unsteady wave field, amplification of short incident waves due to bow reflection, bow impacts including the exit phase and sum frequency excitation due to the bow reflection. The first three features were included in a simplified program to get an idea of the relative importance. The estimates indicated that the stem flare whipping was insignificant in ballast condition, but contributed in cargo condition. The whipping was found to be sensitive to speed. Simplified theory was employed to predict the speed reduction, which was about 5kn in 5m significant wave height. The estimated speed reduction was in fair agreement with full scale measurements of the iron ore carrier.</p><p>Extensive model tests of a large 4-segmented model of an iron ore carrier were carried out. Two loading conditions with three bow shapes were considered in regular and irregular waves at different speeds. By increasing the forward trim, the increased stem flare whipping was again confirmed to be of less importance than the reduced bottom forces in ballast condition. The bow reflection, causing sum frequency excitation, was confirmed to be important both in ballast and cargo condition. It was less sensitive to speed than linear springing. The second order transfer function amplitude displayed a bichromatic sum frequency springing (at resonance), which was almost constant independent of the frequency difference. The nondimensional monochromatic sum frequency springing response was even higher. The sum frequency pressure was mainly confined to the bow area. Surprisingly, for the sharp triangular bow with vertical stem designed to remove the sum frequency effect, the effect was still pronounced, although smaller. The reflection of incident waves did still occur.</p><p>In irregular head sea states in ballast condition whipping occurred often due to bottom bilge (flare) impacts, starting with the first vibration cycle in hogging. This was also observed in cargo condition, and evident in full scale. This confirmed that the exit phase, which was often inaccurately represented or lacking in numerical codes, was rather important. Flat bottom slamming was observed at realistic speeds, but the vibratory response was not significantly increased. Stern slamming did not give any significant vibration at realistic forward speeds.</p><p>The fatigue assessment showed that the relative importance of the vibration damage was reduced for increasing peak period, and secondly that it increased for increasing wave heights due to nonlinearities. All three bows displayed a similar behavior. For the sharp bow, the additional fatigue damage was reduced significantly in steep and moderate to small sea states, but the long term vibration damage was less affected. The effect of the bulb appeared to be small. The contribution of the vibration damage was reduced significantly with speed. For a representative North Atlantic iron ore trade with head sea in ballast and following sea in cargo condition the vibration damage reduced from 51% at full speed to 19% at realistic speeds. This was less than measured in full scale, but the damping ratio of 1-3.5% in model tests was too high, and the wave damage in following seas in cargo condition was represented by head sea states (to high wave damage due to too high encounter frequency). Furthermore, the contribution from vibration damage was observed to increase in less harsh environment from 19% in the North Atlantic to 26% in similarWorld Wide trade. This may also be representative for the effect of routing. The dominating wave and vibration damage came from sea states with a significant wave height of 5m. This was in agreement with full scale results. In ballast condition, the nonlinear sum frequency springing appeared to be more important than the linear springing, and the total springing seemed to be of equivalent importance as the whipping process, which was mainly caused by bottom bilge (flare) impacts. All three effects should be incorporated in numerical tools.</p><p>In full scale, the vibration response reached an apparently constant level as a function of wave height in both ballast and cargo condition in head seas. This behaviour could be explained by the speed reduction in higher sea states. The vibration level in cargo condition was 60-70% of the level in ballast condition. Although common knowledge implies that larger ships may experience higher springing levels due to a lower eigenfrequency, a slightly smaller ore carrier displayed a higher contribution from the vibration damage (57%) in the same trade, explained by about 1m smaller draft. Moreover, the strengthening of the larger ship resulted in a 10% increase of the 2-node eigenfrequency. The subsequent measurements confirmed that an increased hull girder stiffness was not an effective means to reduce the relative importance of the vibration damage.</p><p>The relative importance of the excitation sources causing wave induced vibration may differ considerably for a slender compared to a blunt vessel. Therefore, full scale measurements on a 300m container vessel were briefly evaluated. The damping ratio was almost twice as high as for several blunt ships, possibly due to significant contribution from the container stacks. The reduced relative importance of the vibration damage with increasing wave height for the iron ore carrier in full scale was opposite to the trend obtained for the container vessel. Less speed reduction in higher sea states was confirmed, and the whipping process was apparently relatively more important for the container vessel. Both for the blunt and slender ship of roughly 300m length, the total fatigue damage due to vibration was of similar importance as the conventional wave frequency damage. The contribution to fatigue damage from wave induced vibrations should be accounted for, for ships operating in harsh environment with limited effect of routing, especially when they are optimized with respect to minium steel weight.</p><p>The four hypotheses were all relevant in relation to wave induced vibrations on blunt ships. Further numerical investigation should focus on the sum frequency springing caused by bow reflection and the whipping impacts at the bow quarter. The wave amplification, steady wave elevation and the exit phase must be properly incorporated. When it comes to design by testing, an optimized model size must be selected (wall interaction versus short wave quality). The speed must be selected in combination with sea state. The wave quality must be monitored, and a realistic damping ratio should be confirmed prior to testing. For the purpose of investigating sum frequency excitation, a large restrained bow model tested in higher waves may be utilized to reduce uncertainties in the small measured pressures.</p>

This thesis represents an attempt to reveal and explain the mysterious excitation sources which cause global wave induced vibrations of ships. The wave induced vibrations of the hull girder are referred to as springing when they are associated with a resonance phenomenon, and whipping when they are caused by a transient impact loading. Both phenomena excite the governing vertical 2-node mode and possibly higher order modes, and consequently increase the fatigue and extreme loading of the hull girder. These effects are currently disregarded in conventional ship design. The thesis focuses on the additional fatigue damage on large blunt ships. The study was initiated by conducting an extensive literature study and by organizing an international workshop. The literature indicated that wave induced vibrations should be expected on any ship type, but full scale documentation (and model tests) was mainly related to blunt ships. While the theoretical investigation of whipping mostly focused on slender vessels with pronounced bow flare, full scale measurements indicated that whipping could be just as important for blunt as for slender ships. Moreover, all estimates dealing with the fatigue damage due to wave induced vibration based on full scale measurements before the year of 2000 were nonconservative due to crude simplifications. The literature on the actual importance of the additional fatigue contribution is therefore scarce. The workshop was devoted to the wave induced vibrations measured onboard a 300m iron ore carrier. Full scale measurements in ballast condition were compared with numerical predictions from four state-of-the-art hydroelastic programs. The predicted response was unreliable, and the programs in general underestimated the vibration level. The excitation source was either inaccurately described or lacking. The prediction of sea state parameters and high frequency tail behavior of the wave spectra based on wave radars without proper setting and calibration was also questioned. The measurements showed that vibrations in ballast condition were larger than in the cargo condition, the vibration was more correlated with wind speed than wave height, head seas caused higher vibration levels than following seas, the vibration level towards beam seas decayed only slightly, and the damping ratio was apparently linear and about 0.5%. The additional vibration damage constituted 44% of the total measured fatigue loading in deck amidships in the North Atlantic iron ore trade, with prevailing head seas encountered in ballast condition. Four hypotheses, which may contribute to explain the high vibration levels, were formulated. They include the effect of the steady wave field and the interaction with the unsteady wave field, amplification of short incident waves due to bow reflection, bow impacts including the exit phase and sum frequency excitation due to the bow reflection. The first three features were included in a simplified program to get an idea of the relative importance. The estimates indicated that the stem flare whipping was insignificant in ballast condition, but contributed in cargo condition. The whipping was found to be sensitive to speed. Simplified theory was employed to predict the speed reduction, which was about 5kn in 5m significant wave height. The estimated speed reduction was in fair agreement with full scale measurements of the iron ore carrier. Extensive model tests of a large 4-segmented model of an iron ore carrier were carried out. Two loading conditions with three bow shapes were considered in regular and irregular waves at different speeds. By increasing the forward trim, the increased stem flare whipping was again confirmed to be of less importance than the reduced bottom forces in ballast condition. The bow reflection, causing sum frequency excitation, was confirmed to be important both in ballast and cargo condition. It was less sensitive to speed than linear springing. The second order transfer function amplitude displayed a bichromatic sum frequency springing (at resonance), which was almost constant independent of the frequency difference. The nondimensional monochromatic sum frequency springing response was even higher. The sum frequency pressure was mainly confined to the bow area. Surprisingly, for the sharp triangular bow with vertical stem designed to remove the sum frequency effect, the effect was still pronounced, although smaller. The reflection of incident waves did still occur. In irregular head sea states in ballast condition whipping occurred often due to bottom bilge (flare) impacts, starting with the first vibration cycle in hogging. This was also observed in cargo condition, and evident in full scale. This confirmed that the exit phase, which was often inaccurately represented or lacking in numerical codes, was rather important. Flat bottom slamming was observed at realistic speeds, but the vibratory response was not significantly increased. Stern slamming did not give any significant vibration at realistic forward speeds. The fatigue assessment showed that the relative importance of the vibration damage was reduced for increasing peak period, and secondly that it increased for increasing wave heights due to nonlinearities. All three bows displayed a similar behavior. For the sharp bow, the additional fatigue damage was reduced significantly in steep and moderate to small sea states, but the long term vibration damage was less affected. The effect of the bulb appeared to be small. The contribution of the vibration damage was reduced significantly with speed. For a representative North Atlantic iron ore trade with head sea in ballast and following sea in cargo condition the vibration damage reduced from 51% at full speed to 19% at realistic speeds. This was less than measured in full scale, but the damping ratio of 1-3.5% in model tests was too high, and the wave damage in following seas in cargo condition was represented by head sea states (to high wave damage due to too high encounter frequency). Furthermore, the contribution from vibration damage was observed to increase in less harsh environment from 19% in the North Atlantic to 26% in similarWorld Wide trade. This may also be representative for the effect of routing. The dominating wave and vibration damage came from sea states with a significant wave height of 5m. This was in agreement with full scale results. In ballast condition, the nonlinear sum frequency springing appeared to be more important than the linear springing, and the total springing seemed to be of equivalent importance as the whipping process, which was mainly caused by bottom bilge (flare) impacts. All three effects should be incorporated in numerical tools. In full scale, the vibration response reached an apparently constant level as a function of wave height in both ballast and cargo condition in head seas. This behaviour could be explained by the speed reduction in higher sea states. The vibration level in cargo condition was 60-70% of the level in ballast condition. Although common knowledge implies that larger ships may experience higher springing levels due to a lower eigenfrequency, a slightly smaller ore carrier displayed a higher contribution from the vibration damage (57%) in the same trade, explained by about 1m smaller draft. Moreover, the strengthening of the larger ship resulted in a 10% increase of the 2-node eigenfrequency. The subsequent measurements confirmed that an increased hull girder stiffness was not an effective means to reduce the relative importance of the vibration damage. The relative importance of the excitation sources causing wave induced vibration may differ considerably for a slender compared to a blunt vessel. Therefore, full scale measurements on a 300m container vessel were briefly evaluated. The damping ratio was almost twice as high as for several blunt ships, possibly due to significant contribution from the container stacks. The reduced relative importance of the vibration damage with increasing wave height for the iron ore carrier in full scale was opposite to the trend obtained for the container vessel. Less speed reduction in higher sea states was confirmed, and the whipping process was apparently relatively more important for the container vessel. Both for the blunt and slender ship of roughly 300m length, the total fatigue damage due to vibration was of similar importance as the conventional wave frequency damage. The contribution to fatigue damage from wave induced vibrations should be accounted for, for ships operating in harsh environment with limited effect of routing, especially when they are optimized with respect to minium steel weight. The four hypotheses were all relevant in relation to wave induced vibrations on blunt ships. Further numerical investigation should focus on the sum frequency springing caused by bow reflection and the whipping impacts at the bow quarter. The wave amplification, steady wave elevation and the exit phase must be properly incorporated. When it comes to design by testing, an optimized model size must be selected (wall interaction versus short wave quality). The speed must be selected in combination with sea state. The wave quality must be monitored, and a realistic damping ratio should be confirmed prior to testing. For the purpose of investigating sum frequency excitation, a large restrained bow model tested in higher waves may be utilized to reduce uncertainties in the small measured pressures.

An elastohydrodynamic analysis of a rotary lip seal is performed numerically, incorporating both the fluid mechanics of the lubricating film and the elastic deformation of the lip, by solving the Reynolds equation with flow factors. Asperities on the lip surface dominate the behavior of the flow field in the lubricating film and the elastic deformation of the lip. Since previous analyses treated those asperities deterministically, they required very large computation times. The present approach is much less computationally intensive because the asperities are treated statistically. Since cavitation and asperity orientation play important roles, these are taken into account in the computation of the flow factors. An asperity distortion analysis is introduced to obtain a more realistic model of the complex variations in the asperity distribution on the surface of the seal. Results of the analysis show how the operating parameters of the seal and the characteristics of the asperities affect such seal characteristics as the thickness of the lubricating film, reverse pumping rate, power dissipation and load carrying capacity.

Many concentrated paste-like materials are composed of deformable particles randomly packed into a dense suspension. Examples of the constituent soft particles include polyelectrolyte microgels, emulsion droplets, polymer coated colloids, and star polymers. These materials share in common many properties such as yield stress, shear thinning, non-zero normal stresses, wall-slip, shear-banding, memory and aging (similar to that in structural, spin and polymer glasses). Their unique properties make soft particle pastes (SPPs) scientifically interesting and extremely useful in industrial applications (as rheological modifiers). In this dissertation particle simulations, theoretical models and experiments are used to study the flow dynamics and rheological behavior of SPPs near confining surfaces - wall-slip and shear flow, and in the bulk - elasticity at small stresses and the non-linear shear rheology. In the study of slip near smooth surfaces, rheological measurements are shown that identify the influence of the chemical nature of the shearing boundary on slip at the shearing boundary. A modified elastohydrodynamic model is presented that incorporates attractive and repulsive short range interactions between the paste particles and captures the corresponding suppression and promotion of slip at the wall. Further, fluorescence microscopy and particle tracking velocimetry is used to visualize slip and flow of pastes near smooth boundaries and study the sensitivity of the bulk flow profile to the nature of the shearing surface. In the study of elastic properties of pastes, SPPs are modeled as three-dimensional systems of randomly packed elastic spheres. Simulations are performed wherein the packing is subject to small deformations to compute the high- and low-frequency shear moduli. The simulation results are compared with the data from experiments on microgel pastes. This model is extended to study paste dynamics under simple shear with added pairwise elastohydrodynamic lubrication interactions between the densely packed soft particles. The shear and normal stress differences generated during simple hear flow are calculated that compare well with the experimental data. In addition, the pair distribution function of the initial isotropic configuration, the elastically deformed and the steady sheared configurations is investigated. A semi-empirical analysis of the microstructure and its evolution due to shearing is presented. / text

A general three-dimensional hydroelasticity theory for the evaluation of responses has been adapted to formulate hydrodynamic coefficients for submerged shell-type structures. The derivation of the theory has been presented and is placed in context with other methods of analysis. The ability of this form of analysis to offer an insight into the physical behaviour of practical systems is demonstrated. The influence of external boundaries and fluid viscosity was considered separately using a flexible cylinder as the model. When the surrounding fluid is water, viscosity was assessed to be significant for slender structural members and flexible pipes and in situations where the clearance to an outer casing was slight. To validate the three-dimensional hydroelasticity theory, predictions of resonance frequencies and mode shapes were compared, with measured data from trials undertaken in enclosed tanks. These data exhibited differences due to the position of the test structures in relation to free and fixed boundaries. The rationale of the testing programme and practical considerations of instrumentation, capture and storage of data are described in detail. At first sight a relatively unsophisticated analytical method appeared to offer better correlation with the measured data than the hydroelastic solution. This impression was mistaken, the agreement was merely fortuitous as only the hydroelastic approach is capable of reproducing-the trends recorded in the experiments. The significance of an accurate dynamic analysis using finite elements and the influence of physical factors such as buoyancy on the predicted results are also examined.

<p>The work in this thesis focuses on the use of explicit finite element analysis (FEA) in the modelling of fluid-structure interaction of panel-water impacts. Paper A, considers modelling of a two-dimensional rigid wedge impacting a calm water surface. From analytical methods and results of a systematic parameter study a generalised approach for determination of fluid discretization and contact parameters in the modelling of arbitrary hull-water impact situations is developed and presented. In paper B the finite element modelling methodology suggested in paper A is evaluated for elastic structures by a convergence study of structural response and hydrodynamic load. The structural hydroelastic response is systematically studied by a number of FE-simulations of different impact situations concerning panel deadrise, impact velocity and boundary conditions. In paper B a tentative method for dynamic characterization is also derived. The results are compared with other published results concerning hydroelasticity in panel water impacts. The long-term goal of this work is to develop design criteria, by which it can be determined whether the loading situation of a certain vessel type should be regarded as quasi-static or dynamic, and which consequence on the design a dynamic loading has.</p>

The work in this thesis focuses on the use of explicit finite element analysis (FEA) in the modelling of fluid-structure interaction of panel-water impacts. Paper A, considers modelling of a two-dimensional rigid wedge impacting a calm water surface. From analytical methods and results of a systematic parameter study a generalised approach for determination of fluid discretization and contact parameters in the modelling of arbitrary hull-water impact situations is developed and presented. In paper B the finite element modelling methodology suggested in paper A is evaluated for elastic structures by a convergence study of structural response and hydrodynamic load. The structural hydroelastic response is systematically studied by a number of FE-simulations of different impact situations concerning panel deadrise, impact velocity and boundary conditions. In paper B a tentative method for dynamic characterization is also derived. The results are compared with other published results concerning hydroelasticity in panel water impacts. The long-term goal of this work is to develop design criteria, by which it can be determined whether the loading situation of a certain vessel type should be regarded as quasi-static or dynamic, and which consequence on the design a dynamic loading has. / QC 20101126

The versatility of the fish to adapt to diverse swimming requirements has attracted the attention of researchers in studying bioinspired propulsion for developing efficient underwater robotics. The tail/caudal fin is a major source of thrust generation and is believed that the fish modulates its fin stiffness to optimize the propulsive performance. Inspired by the stiffness modulation of fish fins, the objective of this research is to predict and evaluate the effect of flexibility on propulsive performance of flapping fins. The stiffness of the fins vary along their length and optimization studies have been performed to predict the stiffness profiles that maximize performance. Experiments performed on the real fish caudal fins to measure the stiffness variation along their length validate the theoretical optimal stiffness profiles and provide an insight about the evolution of fish fins for optimal performance. Along with the fin stiffness, the stiffness of the joint (caudal peduncle) connecting the fish body to the tail plays a major role in the generation of thrust. The numerical and experimental investigation has shown that there exists an optimal combination of fin and joint stiffness for each operating condition, thus providing the motivation for active stiffness control during locomotion to optimize efficiency. Inspired by nature's ability to modulate stiffness and shape for different operating conditions, an investigation has been carried out on active control of flapping foils for thrust tailoring using Macro Fiber Composites (MFCs). It has been observed that the performance can be enhanced by controlling the deformation, and distributed actuation along fin produces maximum performance through proper selection of the phase difference between heaving and voltage. Flapping fins produce forces which are oscillatory in nature causing center of mass (COM) oscillations of the attached bodies posing problems of control and maneuverability. Optimization studies have revealed that flexibility of the fin plays a major role in reducing the COM oscillations along with the other operating parameters. Based on these studies, the design principles and guidelines that control the performance have been proposed which aid in the development of aerial and underwater robotic vehicles. Additionally, these studies provide some insight in to how fish might modulate its stiffness based on the requirements. / Ph. D.