• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.305-314
• /
• 2017

Ocean wave energy harvesting is still too expensive despite developing a variety of wave energy converter (WEC) devices. For the cost-effective wave energy harvesting, it can be an effective measure to use existing breakwaters or newly installed breakwaters for both wave control and energy harvesting purposes. In this study, we investigated the functionality of both breakwater and wave-power generator for the oscillating water column (OWC)-type wave energy converter (WEC) installed in a pneumatic floating breakwater, which was originally developed as a floating breakwater. In order to verify the performance of the breakwater as a WEC, the air flow velocity from air-chamber to WEC has to be evaluated properly. Therefore, air flow velocity, wave transformation and motion of floating structure was numerically implemented based on BEM from linear velocity potential theory without considering the compressibility of air within the chamber. Air pressure, meanwhile, was assumed to be fluctuated by the motions of structure and the water level change within air-chamber. The validity of the obtained values can be determined by comparing the previous results from the numerical analysis for different shapes. Based on numerical model results, wave transformation characteristics around OWC system mounted on the fixed and floating breakwaters, and motions of the structure with air flow velocities are investigated. In summary, all numerical results are almost identical to the previous research considering air compressibility. Therefore, it can be concluded that this analysis not considering air compressibility in the air chamber is more efficient and practical method.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.99-110
• /
• 2017

This paper presents the study of the bending behavior of mooring chain links for keeping the position of the offshore floating structures. In general, chain links have been thought as the axial members due to the fundamental boundary condition. But, the flexural stiffness can be induced to the contact surface between chain links when friction occurs at the surface of the chain links due to high tensile force. Especially, the mooring chains for offshore floating platforms are highly tensioned. If the floater suffers rotational motion and the mooring chain links are highly tensioned, the rotation between contact links, induced by the floater rotation, generates the bending moment and relevant stresses due to the unexpected bending stiffness. In 2005, the mooring chain links for the Girassol Buoy Platform were failed after just 5 months after facility installation, and the accident investigation research concluded the chain failure was mainly caused by the fatigue due to the unexpected bending stress fluctuation. This study investigates the pattern of the induced bending stiffness and stresses of the highly tensioned chain links by nonlinear finite element analysis.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.25-30
• /
• 2008

A B-spline based high order panel method was developed for the motion of bodies in an ideal fluid, either of infinite extent or with a free boundarysurface. In this method, both the geometry and the potential are represented by the B-spline, which guarantees more accurate results than most potential based low order methods. In the present work, we applied this B-spline based high order method to the radiation problem of floating bodies. The boundary condition on the free surface was satisfied by adopting a Kelvin-type Green function and irregular frequencies were removed by placing additional control points on the free surface surrounding the body. The numerical results were validated by comparison with existing numerical and experimental results.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
• /
• v.32 no.1A
• /
• pp.19-30
• /
• 2012

Recently, vision-based dynamic deflection measurement techniques have significant interests and are getting more popular owing to development of the high-quality and low-price camcorder and also image processing algorithm. However, there are still several research issues to be improved including the self-vibration of vision device, i.e. camcorder, and the image processing algorithm in device aspect, and also the application area should be extended to measure three dimensional movement of floating structures in application aspect. In this study, vision-based dynamic motion measurement technique using multiple targets is proposed to measure three dimensional dynamic motion of floating structures. And also a new scheme to select threshold value to discriminate the background from the raw image containing targets. The proposed method is applied to measure the dynamic motion of large concrete floating quay in open sea area under several wave conditions, and the results are compared with the measurement results from conventional RTK-GPS(Real Time Kinematics-Global Positioning System) and MRU(Motion Reference Unit).

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.131-138
• /
• 2019

This study focused on the roll motion characteristics of a two-dimensional (2D) rectangular floating structure under regular beam sea conditions. An experiment was conducted in a 2D wave tank for a roll free decay test in calm water and the roll motion in a range of regular waves with and without heave motion to investigate the motion response and heave influence on the roll motion. A numerical study was carried out using Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RANS)-based CFD simulations. A grid convergence test was conducted to accurately capture the wave condition on the free surface based on the overset mesh and wave forcing method. It was found in the roll free decay test that the numerical results agreed well with the experimental results for the natural roll period and roll damping coefficient. It was also observed that the heave motion had an impact on the roll motion, and the responses of the heave and roll motion from the CFD simulations were in reasonable agreement with those from the experiment.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.20 no.6 s.73
• /
• pp.41-53
• /
• 2006

This experimental study investigated the flow characteristics for regular waves passing a rectangular floating structure in a two-dimensional wave tank. The particle image velocimetry (PIV) was employed to obtain the velocity field in the vicinity of the structure. The phase average was used to extract the mean flow and turbulence property from repeated instantaneous PIV velocity profiles. The mean velocity field represented the vortex generation and evolution on both sides of the structure. The turbulence properties, including the turbulence length scale and the turbulent kinetic energy budget were investigated to characterize the flow interaction between the regular wave and the structure. The results shaw the vortex generated near the structure corners, which are known as the eddy-making damping or viscous damping. However, the vortex induced by the wave is longer than the roll natural period of the structure, which presents the phenomena opposing the roll damping effect; that is, the vortex may increase the roll motion under the wave condition longer than the roll natural period.

• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.49-60
• /
• 2017

As well as the strength check, fatigue life check is also mainly required for designing mooring lines of the floating structures. In general, forces which induce dynamic structural response significantly affect to fatigue design of the mooring lines. So, waves are mainly considered as the governing loading for fatigue design of the mooring lines. In this study, characteristics of the fatigue damage of the mooring lines for submerged floating tunnels (SFT) under irregular waves are investigated. For this study time domain hydrodynamic analysis is used to obtain motion of the tunnel and tension and stresses of the mooring lines under the specific environmental conditions. Also, the Rainflow-counting method, the Palmgren-Miner's rule, and S-N curves for floating offshore structures presented by DNV recommendation is applied to calculate the fatigue damage due to the fluctuating stresses. Referring to the design plactice of the tendon pipes for TLP (tension-leg platform), which is very similar structural system to SFT, it is assumed that a 100 year return period wave attacks the SFT systems during 48 hours and the fatigue damages due to the environmental loading are calculated. Following the analysis sequence, the effects of the tunnel draft, spacing and initial inclination angle of the mooring lines on the fatigue damage under the specific environmental loadings are investigated.