Some methods to obtain the added resistance of a ship advancing in waves

Added resistance in waves is an important part of ship dynamic due to its economical effect on ship exploitation. Can the ship sustain speed in a rough sea state? If not, this will produce delays and economical losses if added resistance is not taken into account in the propulsion design. There are not many simple methods to obtain the added resistance in waves of a ship, and the validity of the results is not always good enough for different ships. In this paper, some theories that can be used to predict the added resistance of a ship are studied and validated against seakeeping tests of some monohull models. Tests and results focus in head seas, which are the most severe for the added resistance. Experimental results are compared with numerical calculations and conclusions about the range of application of the presented theories are obtained.     

Ultimate strength of ship hulls under torsion

For a ship hull with large deck openings such as container vessels and some large bulk carriers, the analysis of warping stresses and hatch opening deformations is an essential part of ship structural analyses. It is thus of importance to better understand the ultimate torsional strength characteristics of ships with large hatch openings. The primary aim of the present study is to investigate the ultimate strength characteristics of ship hulls with large hatch openings under torsion. Axial (warping) as well as shear stresses are normally developed for thin-walled beams with open cross sections subjected to torsion. A procedure for calculating these stresses is briefly described. As an illustrative example, the distribution and magnitude of warping and shear stresses for a typical container vessel hull cross section under unit torsion is calculated by the procedure. By theoretical and numerical analyses, it is shown that the influence of torsion induced warping stresses on the ultimate hull girder bending strength is small for ductile hull materials while torsion induced shear stresses will of course reduce the ship hull ultimate bending moment.     

Automatic collision avoidance of multiple ships based on deep Q-learning

As the number of ships for marine transportation increases with the globalisation of the world economy, waterways are becoming more congested than before. This situation will raise the risk of collision of the ships; hence, an automatic collision avoidance system needs to be developed. In this paper, a novel approach based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) is proposed for automatic collision avoidance of multiple ships particularly in restricted waters. A training method and algorithms for collision avoidance of ships, incorporating ship manoeuvrability, human experience and navigation rules, are presented in detail. The proposed approach is investigated not only by numerical simulations but also by model experiments using three self-propelled ships. Through the systematic numerical and experimental validation, it is demonstrated the developed approach based on the DRL has great possibility for realising automatic collision avoidance of ships in highly complicated navigational situations.     

Practical evaluation of sinkage and trim effects on the drag of a common generic freely floating monohull ship

A practical method to account for the influence of sinkage and trim on the drag of a freely floating (free to sink and trim) common monohull ship at a Froude number F ≤ 0.45 is considered. The sinkage and the trim are estimated via two alternative simple methods, considered previously. The drag is also estimated in a simple way, based on the classical Froude decomposition into viscous and wave components. Specifically, well-known semiempirical expressions for the friction drag, the viscous pressure drag and the drag due to hull roughness are used, and the wave drag is evaluated via a practical linear potential flow method. This simple approach can be used for ship models as well as full-scale ships with smooth or rough hull surfaces, and is well suited for early ship design and optimization. The method considered here to determine the sinkage and the trim, and their influence on the drag, yields theoretical predictions of the drag of the Wigley, S60 and DTMB5415 hulls that are much closer to experimental measurements than the corresponding predictions for the hull surfaces of the ships in equilibrium position at rest. These numerical results suggest that sinkage and trim effects, significant at Froude numbers 0.25 < F, on the drag of a typical freely floating monohull ship can be realistically accounted for in a practical manner that only requires simple potential flow computations without iterative computations for a sequence of hull positions.     

Effect of ship structure and size on grounding and collision damage distributions

It has been argued that a major shortcoming in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Interim Guidelines for Approval of Alternative Methods of Design and Construction of Oil Tankers in Collision and Grounding is that grounding and collision damages normalized by the main dimensions of the ship have the same probability density distributions regardless of a particular structural design and ship size.The present paper explores analytical methods for assessing the overall effect of structural design on the damage distributions in accidental grounding and collisions. The results are expressed in simple expressions involving structural dimensions and the building material of the ships. The study shows that the density distribution for collision and grounding damages normalized by the main dimensions of the ship depends on the size of the ship. A larger ship has a higher probability of a larger relative damage length than that of a smaller ship in grounding damage. On the other hand, the damages to the side structure caused by ship collisions are found to be relatively smaller for large ships.The main conclusion is that the existing IMO damage distributions will severely underestimate the grounding damages to the bottom structure of larger vessels and to a lesser extent overestimate collision damages to the side structure of the hull.     

Ships with ventilated cavitation in seaways and active flow control

Bottom ventilated cavitation has been proven as a very effective drag reduction technology for river ships and planning boats. The ability of this technology to withstand the sea wave impact usual for seagoing ships depends on the ship bottom shape and could be enhanced by some active flow control devices. Therefore, there is the need in numerical tools to estimate the effects of bottom changes and to design such devices. The fundamentals of active flow control for the ship bottom ventilated cavitation are considered here on the basis of a special model of cavitating flows. This model takes into account the air compressibility in the cavity, as well as the multi-frequency nature of the incoming flow in wavy seas and of the cavity response on perturbations by incoming flow. The numerical method corresponding to this model was developed and widely manifested with an example of a ship model tested in a towing tank at Froude numbers between 0.4 and 0.7.The impact of waves in head seas and following seas on cavities has been studied in the range of wavelengths from 0.45 to 1.2 of the model (or ship) length. An oscillating cavitator-spoiler was considered as the flow controlling devices in this study. The oscillation magnitude and the phase shift between cavitator oscillation and the incoming waves have been varied to determine the best flow control parameters. The main results of the provided computational analysis include oscillations of cavity surface, of the pressure in cavity and of the moment of hydrodynamic load on the cavitator. The major part of computations has been carried out for the flap oscillating at the frequency coinciding with the wave frequency, but the effect of a frequency shift is also analyzed.     

Model experiments on moored ships

At present the position keeping of ocean going vessels, offshore service vessels, etc., is performed by mooring systems to resist external forces under severe environments consisting of wave, current and wind. A variety of mooring systems are employed depending on the shape, principal dimensions, etc., of the vessels in addition to the surrounding conditions of the water areas. Ocean going ships are moored to the shore structures through a multiple system of moorings. The determination of the forces in the cables is essential for the design of moorings and the berthing structures. However, the ships engaged for offshore operations are moored by the mooring cables, spread around the ships with the other ends of the moorings anchored to the sea bed. In these cases, the required number and length of cables can be arrived for a given ship of known dimensions and environmental conditions. With the increased overall dimensions of the vessels, it is necessary to conduct a study on enhancing the accuracy in estimating the mooring system performance. Hence, the present work is mainly intended to carry out model tests to investigate the behaviour of moored ships that are subjected to wave and current loadings. These model experiments were conducted in a 30 m × 2 m × 1 m wave-current flume at the Ocean Engineering Centre, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.     

Resistance and propulsion characteristics of various commercial ships based on CFD results

This paper uses computational tools to examine the speed performance of various types of commercial ships including resistance and propulsion characteristics. Eight commercial ships built in the last decade were selected for the study. They include four large-sized container carriers, one bulk carrier, one VLCC, and two LNG carriers. The Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equation has been utilized, and the computations were executed under the same conditions of the model tests to predict the speed performance, i.e., resistance and self-propulsion. The self-propulsion point was obtained from load-varying tests. The speed performance was predicted based on the model-ship performance analysis method of the revised ITTC’78 method. The limiting streamlines on the hull, wave characteristics around the model ship, and the wake characteristics on the propeller plane were also investigated. After completing the computations, a series of model tests were conducted to evaluate the accuracy of the computational predictions. The predictions clearly reveal the differences in the resistance and propulsion characteristics regarding the various types of commercial ships, and may be applicable to hull-form design.     

Evaluation of Vector Winds Observed by NSCAT in the Seas around Japan

In order to validate wind vectors derived from the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT), two NSCAT wind products of different spatial resolutions are compared with observations by buoys and research vessels in the seas around Japan. In general, the NSCAT winds agree well with the wind data from the buoys and vessels. It is shown that the root-mean-square (rms) difference between NSCAT-derived wind speeds and the buoy observations is 1.7 ms^–1, which satisfies the mission requirement of accuracy, 2 ms^–1. However, the rms difference of wind directions is slightly larger than the mission requirement, 20°. This result does not agree with those of previous studies on validation of the NSCAT-derived wind vectors using buoy observations, and is considered to be due to differences in the buoy observation systems. It is also shown that there are no significant systematic trends of the NSCAT wind speed and direction depending on the wind speed and incidence angle. Comparison with ship winds shows that the NSCAT wind speeds are lower than those observed by the research vessels by about 0.7 ms^–1 and this bias is twice as large for data observed by moving ships than by stationary ships. This result suggests that the ship winds may be influenced by errors caused by ship's motion, such as pitching and rolling.     

Survey on biological fouling and corrosion of vessels

ＳｕｒｖｅｙｏｎｂｉｏｌｏｇｉｃａｌｆｏｕｌｉｎｇａｎｄｃｏｒｒｏｓｉｏｎｏｆｖｅｓｓｅｌｓＩＮＴＲＯＤＵＣＴＩＯＮＳｉｎｃｅｔｈｅｓｔｅｅｌｓｈｅｌｌｖｅｓｓｅｌｓｃａｍｅｉｎｔｏｂｅｉｎｇ，ｂｉｏｌｏｇｉｃａｌｆｏｕｌｉｎｇａｎｄｃｏｒｒｏｓｉｏ...     

艏艉线型优化对船舶阻力性能的影响

为提高母型船阻力性能,以船体阻力性能为优化对象,基于改造母型船法,研究船舶球鼻艏以及船尾线型的改变对船舶阻力性能的影响.采用高度集成化的Tribon系统、可视化绘图软件Auto CAD及CFD(Computational Fluid Dynamics)通用前处理软件ICEM联合建模的方法来建立船体模型.通过模拟计算结果与实验值的对比分析,验证CFD技术在船舶阻力性能预报中的合理性和有效性.通过对比3种不同球鼻艏时的船体阻力得知:从阻力性能方面考虑,对于低速丰满型船舶选用普通型球鼻艏以及中高速船舶采用上翘型球鼻艏均可以获取较好地减阻效果.同时比较不同航速下尾部线型对船体总阻力的影响表明,选优后的方形尾在相同的航速下阻力低、消耗的功率小、形状效应小、黏压阻力和摩擦阻力也相对较小.     

Model Test and Design of the Wave Energy System on "Central Fairway No. 1" Light Ship

This paper presents the test of a ship model for the design of a backward-bent duct oscillating water column type wave energy conversion system, to supply electric power for a light ship. This system suggests a new way to produce electric power automatically for large light ships.     

Management strategies to prevent the introduction of non-indigenous aquatic species in response to the Ballast Water Convention in Taiwan

The Convention for ballast water management is approaching the threshold of enforcement. Many countries around the world formulate national laws and regulations to mitigate the hazards of non-indigenous aquatic species (NIAS) brought about by the discharge of ballast water from ships. Taiwan’s critical location as an important transportation hub in the Western Pacific Ocean makes it a hot spot for the invasion of NIAS. Therefore, devising strategies for the management of ballast water is urgently needed. This study explores the global trend in ballast water management, and discusses the possible strategies which Taiwan may adopt in response to the Ballast Water Convention, from the perspective of Taiwan’s stakeholders in relation to the ballast water issue. Some of the proper actions that Taiwan should take in the future regarding the management of ballast water include: delineating the area for ballast water exchange, establishing the ballast water declaration system for incoming vessels, assisting shipping companies in installing ballast water treatment systems, determining risk priority for incoming vessels, and inspecting ballast water-related parameters by means of port state control (PSC). In this way, the invasion of NIAS may then be prevented in compliance with the global standards.     

Strategies for promoting biodiesel use in marine vessels

The marine transportation sector, responsible for consuming a large amount of degraded fuel oil, is one of the major contributors to global warming and air pollution. These effects are responsible for a large number of premature deaths in the US and throughout the world. The international regulation known as the 2008 MARPOL Annex VI Amendment, which is enforced by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), has imposed progressively more stringent limits on emissions from marine vessels. Biodiesel, an environmentally friendly, renewable, clean, and low-carbon fuel, is regarded as the most appropriate alternative fuel for marine vessels. However, the promotion of biodiesel use in water-borne transportation is considered to be a bigger challenge than its more successful development in land-based applications. The major obstacles to promoting biodiesel blends in marine transportation are examined in this study. The strategies proposed to overcome these obstacles include the comprehensive field testing of the biodiesel blends in marine vessels of various representative types, establishing a marine-grade biodiesel specification, increasing the price competitiveness of marine-grade biodiesel by reducing its manufacturing costs, providing tax cuts, exemptions, and government subsidies, increasing the amount of biodiesel use in marine applications, adopting compatible elastomers and metallic materials in fuel feeding systems and storage tanks, applying approaches or technologies suitable for improving the low-temperature fluidity of biodiesel blends, and increasing the added value of purified glycerol. The effective application of these strategies will enable the more widespread use of biodiesel in marine applications, significantly reducing emissions from ships, improving global air quality, protecting the ecological environment and improving people’s health.     

Simplified model for predicting the onset of parametric rolling

The world container fleet shows the fastest growth of any ship type. The infrastructure for loading and unloading container ships are also growing in many ports around the world. Such a trend is due to the fact that the containerized transportation is becoming more and more attractive due to many factors. The increasing demand in container transportation is met by use of more number of container ships including Post-Panamax and Malacca-max containers. Loss of containers in seas and accidents of container vessels are reported from many parts of seas. New generation containers are severely hit by parametric rolling. Pure loss of stability, due to exponential increase of roll in either broaching—to or head sea conditions, is called parametric rolling, is subjected to rigorous investigation by many researchers. Algebraic expression based on well known Duffing's method is proposed for solutions in parametric rolling. The variation in GM and damping values from trough to crest conditions associated with bow flare immersion and emergence in head sea conditions with pitch resonance with the heading waves are said to be the prime reason for parametric rolling. A simple model to predict the beginning of parametric rolling is described in this paper.     

Depositional characteristics and accumulation model of gas hydrates in northern South China Sea

The South China Sea (SCS) shows favorable conditions for gas hydrate accumulation and exploration prospects. Bottom simulating reflectors (BSRs) are widely distributed in the SCS. Using seismic and sequence stratigraphy, the spatial distribution of BSRs has been determined in three sequences deposited since the Late Miocene. The features of gas hydrate accumulations in northern SCS were systematically analyzed by an integrated analysis of gas source conditions, migration pathways, heat flow values, occurrence characteristics, and depositional conditions (including depositional facies, rates of deposition, sand content, and lithological features) as well as some depositional bodies (structural slopes, slump blocks, and sediment waves). This research shows that particular geological controls are important for the presence of BSRs in the SCS, not so much the basic thermodynamic controls such as temperature, pressure and a gas source. Based on this, a typical depositional accumulation model has been established. This model summarizes the distribution of each depositional system in the continental shelf, continental slope, and continental rise, and also shows the typical elements of gas hydrate accumulations. BSRs appear to commonly occur more in slope-break zones, deep-water gravity flows, and contourites. The gas hydrate-bearing sediments in the Shenhu drilling area mostly contain silt or clay, with a silt content of about 70%. In the continental shelf, BSRs are laterally continuous, and the key to gas hydrate formation and accumulation lies in gas transportation and migration conditions. In the continental slope, a majority of the BSRs are associated with zones of steep and rough relief with long-term alternation of uplift and subsidence. Rapid sediment unloading can provide a favorable sedimentary reservoir for gas hydrates. In the continental rise, BSRs occur in the sediments of submarine fans, turbidity currents.     

中国海洋志愿观测船现运行状态及发展

志愿船观测是中国必须履行的国际义务。目前，中国海洋志愿观测船只呈逐年减少趋势，从过去的百余艘船只降至三、四十艘，并且从观测能力上也存在较多问题，比如观测手段比较落后、观测要素单一、观测资料缺乏。从根本上讲，志愿船运行机制缺乏有效的制度化保障，因此难以形成业务化能力，并且不能有效的履行国际义务。本文将对志愿船现运行状态及发展进行论述。     

我国海岸线确定和管理模式研究

文章归纳总结了我国海岸线确定和公布的模式．提出了海岸线确定后的海岸线修订、海岸线区划、海岸线使用和海岸线信息化管理等方面的问题．并对其进行了具体的研究和探讨，为我国海岸线的管理提供了有益的参考。     

基于高斯烟羽模型的船舶尾气扩散研究

为有效对港区大气污染进行治理、分析船舶尾气,本文详细介绍了一种基于高斯烟羽模型,通过MATLAB模拟仿真模型,其包括实验仿真过程、技术原理及理论模型对船舶尾气扩散进行的研究。该模型是在传统的高斯烟羽模型的基础上,通过对实源像源进行加权选择输入参数;通过矢量合成确定了气体扩散的方向,利用合成后的"风速"进行计算仿真,有效模拟了船舶尾气在港区或者海洋环境中的气体扩散模型。其模型简单且可以有效模拟船舶尾气扩散。并且进一步对后续模型的精确优化进行分析。     

Evaluation of Hydrodynmic Coefficients of Ships Oscillating in A Numerical Wave Tank

A technique for the evaluation of the hydrodynamic coefficients of ships is outlined for ship oscillating in a numerical wave tank,which is established on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) theories.The numerical simulation of ship sections and bodies forced oscillating in the tank are carried out.The added mass and damping coefficients are obtained by the decomposition of the computational results,which agree well with the corresponding ones of potential theories.