Foresight Study on the Physical Modelling of Wave and Ice Loads on Marine Structures

Sutherland, J. and Evers, K.U. (2013) Foresight Study on the Physical Modelling of Wave and Ice Loads on Marine Structures. Proceedings of the 35th IAHR World Congress, Chengdu, China.. ISSN ISBN 978-7-89414-588-8

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Abstract

The measurement of wave and / or ice loads on coastal and maritime structures can play an important role in their final design. The number and range of man-made structures that are subject to these loads is increasing – from offshore oil and gas facilities, through ships and, renewable energy devices, to breakwaters, quay walls, bridges and tunnels. This paper summarises the results of a Foresight Study, available from www.hydralab.eu, which reviewed techniques for making physical model measurements of wave and ice loads on marine structures, summarised their weaknesses and outlined the advances in modelling techniques that the authors expect to see. The short-term developments that are expected include improvements in efficiency by the development of sampling schemes (so that shorter tests may be run) and the improvement of techniques for computing the low-frequency response of floating structures. They also include improvements in wave generation by improving techniques for producing focussed waves over varying bathymetry and in the presence of structures, improving shallow water wave generation using phase-resolving numerical wave models and developing novel forms of tsunami wave generation. We anticipate improvements in instrumentation, including the application of tactile pressure sensors to measure spatially-varying loads, the development of active (servomotor-based) transducers to reproduce non-linear responses and increases in the spatial coverage of optical and acoustic instruments. There will be improvements in access to data, including the sharing of meta-data over the semantic web and the transfer of data from remote experiments. The longer-term changes that are anticipated include (i) the development of composite models with full two-way coupling between numerical and physical models in real time, (ii) increased use of physical models with CFD, (iii) improved treatment of uncertainty, partly achieved through (iv) the provision of much more detailed datasets due to improvements in sensor size, resolution, sampling frequency and spatial coverage, (v) the development of the active laboratory, with many more computer-controlled non-linear devices, (vi) development of simulators to reproduce single phenomena (such as wave run-up or overtopping) in a controlled manner in the field and (vii) the development of more open science, with citations for publically-available data that can be found, described and downloaded over the web.

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