
Zhi-Ming YuanUniversity of Strathclyde · Naval Architecture Ocean and Marine Engineering
Zhi-Ming Yuan
Doctor of Philosophy
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129
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Publications (129)
Hydrodynamic interaction continues to be a major contributory factor in marine casualties and hazardous incidents, in particular, in the case of overtaking operations. The situation becomes even worse when the overtaking operation occurs in shallow and narrow channels, where the interaction can cause the vessels to collide and, in one case has caus...
The main objective of this paper is to investigate theoretically and numerically how much interactions are expected between two ships travelling in waves. The theoretical estimation is based on asymptotic far-field wave patterns produced by a translating and oscillating source. The far-field wave pattern is governed by the parameter τ=ωeu0/g; For v...
This study focuses on the hydrodynamic interaction between two or three human swimmers in competitive swimming. Although the swimming performance of a single swimmer has been widely examined, the studies on the interaction between multiple competitive swimmers are very rare. Experiments showed evidence that the drag of a swimmer could be modified b...
It has been commonly observed on open waters that ducklings/goslings follow their mothers in a highly organized formation. The questions arise: (1) why are they swimming in formation? (2) what is the best swimming formation? (3) how much energy can be preserved by each individual in formation swimming? To address these questions, we established a s...
Floating offshore photovoltaic (FOPV) systems are key technologies for harnessing offshore solar resources, playing a crucial role in mitigating global climate change. Anchoring systems, essential components of FOPV systems, ensure operational safety by limiting floating body's displacement. However, factors such as positioning errors, uneven seabe...
Marine floating photovoltaics (MFPV) systems emerge as a promising frontier in the development of offshore clean energy, with their primary applications being in nearshore shallow waters. In these areas, the shallow depths, intricate seabed topographies and rugged shorelines profoundly affect wave propagation and transformation processes, leading t...
Hinged multi-body systems are gaining popularity in the field of ocean engineering. Their performance is commonly evaluated using numerical simulations, but comparisons with experimental data are required to ensure the accuracy of the computational tools. However, there is a dearth of experimental studies on the motion performance of hinged multi-b...
Liquid jet formations on water surfaces serve as a cornerstone in diverse scientific disciplines, underpinning processes in climatology, environmental sciences, and human health issues. Traditional models predominantly focus on pristine conditions, an idealisation that overlooks common environmental irregularities such as the presence of particulat...
In deep seas, there is an increasing utilisation of multiple floating structures as devices for harnessing renewable energy, such as hybrid wind-wave energy systems and multi-body wave energy converters. The control strategies have a great influence on the motion characteristics and energy conversion efficiency of these systems. The control technol...
Ship hydrodynamics in a constant waterway have been well studied. With a coordinate system fixed on the moving ship, the boundary value problem (BVP) is usually treated as a steady one. However, the hydrodynamics of a ship moving in confined waterways with abrupt changes in width or depth are complex due to their unsteady nature. The studies on suc...
Metamaterials have a unique ability to manipulate wave phenomena beyond their natural capabilities, and they have shown great promise in electromagnetic and acoustic wave control. However, their exploration in hydrodynamics remains limited. This article introduces a novel desktop-scale wave measurement system, specifically designed for the rapid pr...
Wave-induced pitch motion has adverse effects on the power generation of Floating Wind Turbines (FWTs). The traditional blade-pitch system, which is commonly used for regulating wind energy capture and power generation, can also be utilized to reduce the platform pitch motion. However, frequent active blade pitching can harm the wind turbine’s blad...
Large arrays of floating photovoltaics (FPV) are emerging to be an attractive solution to renewable energy production and ocean space utilization. FPV arrays are typically buoyed by hundreds of modularized floating bases arranged in ocean surface. The total performance of the FPV arrays is significantly affected by the hydrodynamic interactions bet...
As a signatory to the Paris Agreement, the UK is committed to contribute efforts to prevent global temperature increase. The UK set its policies and proposals to meet zero net strategy by 2050. Offshore green hydrogen is one promising approach to transfer offshore wind energy to onshore demand areas due to its clean and high-power density. The UK i...
Hinged arrays have garnered increasing interest due to their potential to provide flexible and adaptable solutions for the various challenges faced in ocean development. The effectiveness of these arrays in engineering applications heavily depends on the motion characteristics of each individual module, rather than specific modules such as the one...
The acceleration resistance of a vessel advancing in shallow water is investigated. Four acceleration intensities and two water depths are modelled using CFD and potential flow methods. The results show a pronounced peak in resistance exists near the critical depth Froude number, but its location and magnitude are sensitive to the acceleration inte...
Floating structures have become a major part of offshore structure communities as offshore engineering moves from shallow waters to deeper ones. Floating installation ships or platforms are widely used in these engineering operations. Unexpected wave-induced motions affect floating structures, especially in harsh sea conditions. Horizontal motions...
Unsteady wash waves generated by a ship with constant speed moving across an uneven bottom topography are investigated by numerical simulations based on a Mixed Euler—Lagrange (MEL) method. The transition is accomplished by the ship traveling from the depth h1 into the depth h2 via a step bottom. A small tsunami would be created after this transiti...
Freak waves can cause serious damage to offshore structures because of their characteristics of high peak energy, short duration, and great contingency. In this study, the slamming pressure characteristics of a typical floating wind turbine under freak waves are studied by numerical simulation and experiment. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD)...
Autonomous shipping has been identified as the way forward in the maritime transport. However, the time-optimal path planning, anti-disturbance trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance are still ongoing challenging problems, which have not been properly addressed for autonomous ship. To fill the knowledge gap, we propose a novel nonlinear model p...
It is a challenging issue to fully consider the radiation interaction among floating bodies in a large array configuration. It requires large computational efforts to resolve the interaction matrix of floaters oscillating independently with 6 degrees of freedom (DoF). Obviously, when the distance between 2 floaters is large enough, their interactio...
Integrating multi-type Wave Energy Converters (WECs) enables wave energy to be extracted from multiple harvesting manners simultaneously, which presents a more competitive energy conversion technology. In this study, an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) and an Oscillating Buoy (OB) are combined to devise a hybrid WEC system that serves as a floating b...
Wave energy converters(WECs) integrated into floating breakwaters or, more generally, their designs also used as wave absorbers can provide a space- and cost-sharing solution to enhance the efficiency of coastal protection. In this study, the hydrodynamic performances of an oscillating buoy(OB)-type single-pontoon floating breakwater(SPFB) and an o...
Combining multiple-types of Wave Energy Converters (WECs) and integrating them into in-development or pre-existing marine platforms can reduce the total Levelised Cost of Energy (LCoE) by sharing infrastructures and maintenance costs. The current study proposes an innovative multi-purpose solution by deploying an Oscillating Buoy (OB) device inside...
Tension Leg Platform (TLP) in deepwater oil and gas field development usually consists of a hull, tendons, and top tension risers (TTRs). To maintain its top tension, each TTR is connected with a tensioner system to the hull. Owing to the complicated configuration of the tensioners, the hull and TTRs form a strong coupled system. Traditionally, som...
This paper presents a novel design of an ocean surface cleaning system (OSCS), which can be operated at various sea sites. The system weathervanes around the mooring system, so that the marine debris can be effectively concentrated by the OSCS. In order to verify the technical feasibility and efficiency of this novel OSCS, a series of experiments i...
Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) have wide application prospects in military and civil fields. Motivated by the large demand for environmental protection equipment, a water-sampling USV (WS-USV) system is designed in this study. The software and hardware of the entire system are designed and developed independently. Two water sampling modes, a manu...
Combing floating breakwaters with wave energy converters (WECs) and integrating them into very large floating structure (VLFS) can provide a viable option to explore economically offshore wave energy resources and simultaneously to protect marine structures. In this paper, the time-domain numerical model is developed based on the modal expansion th...
The hybrid concept of multi-type wave energy converters provides viable solutions to improve the wave energy exploitation per-unit area and reduce the Levelised Cost of Electricity. In this paper, a multi-degree-of-freedom hybrid system combining an oscillating wave surge converter and two oscillating buoys, is proposed and integrated into a semi-s...
Floating breakwaters with a mooring system have been widely applied to protect marine infrastructures (e.g., artificial beach or island, aquaculture farm or marine vessels in harbors) from being destroyed by severe waves. In this paper, an innovative cylindrical dual pontoon-net floating breakwater was developed to enhance the wave attenuation capa...
Coastal wave energy resources have enormous exploitation potential due to shorter weather window, closer installation distance and lower maintenance cost. However, impact loads generated by depth variation from offshore to nearshore and wave-current interaction, may lead to a catastrophic damage or complete destruction to wave energy converters (WE...
An iterative time-marching scheme is developed to investigate the hydrodynamic interactions between multiple ships. Such an unsteady interactive effect could be magnified in restricted waterways, e.g., a channel or harbor area. To the author’s knowledge, nearly all the research on the ship-to-ship interaction neglecting the free surface effects. Th...
Improving the autopilot capability of ships is particularly important to ensure the safety of maritime navigation.The unmanned surface vessel (USV) with autopilot capability is a development trend of the ship of the future. The objective of this paper is to investigate the path planning problem of USVs in uncertain environments, and a path planning...
Integration of Wave Energy Converters (WECs) with floating breakwater system provides a multi-function solution to wave energy extraction and offshore infrastructural protection. The contribution of this work is to guide the optimal size and configuration of a multi-purpose platform including a moonpool-type floating breakwater and an array of heav...
In practice, dynamic positioning (DP) vessels are subjected to complex disturbances as well as the magnitude and changing rate constraints of the thrusts and moments. This study applied a dynamic surface controller based on an uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE) to a DP vessel with complex disturbances and input constraints. The UDE was des...
Ship-seabed interaction is highly critical to ship safety and ship performance when ship operates over shallow water with uneven seabed. However, the prediction method for ship reaction is still yet to be fully developed. In this paper, a high-fidelity transient numerical simulation method with sliding mesh is developed based on computational fluid...
The real-time implementation of wave energy control leads to non-causality as the wave load that comes in the next few seconds is used to optimize the control command. The present work tackles non-causality through online forecasting of future wave force using artificial intelligence technique. The past free surface elevation is used to forecast th...
To measure the resistance of a ship in a towing tank, the target speed of the ship model is achieved by towing the model from the rest at a given acceleration imposed by the carriage. The fluctuations in resistance are generated because of the impulse effects during rapid acceleration. Such acceleration effects in deep water have been studied by pr...
The numerical simulation of ship flows has evolved into a highly practical approach in naval architecture. In typical virtual towing tanks, the principle of Galilean relativity is invoked to maintain the ship as fixed, while the surrounding water is prescribed to flow past it. This assumption may be identified, at least partly, as being responsible...
Ships often have to pass each other in proximity in harbor areas and waterways in dense shipping-traffic environment. Hydrodynamic interaction occurs when a ship is overtaking (or being overtaken) or encountering other ships. Such an interactive effect could be magnified in confined waterways, e.g., shallow and narrow rivers. Since Yeung published...
Winglet has been widely used in aviation industries to improve the performance of aircraft. However, according to the authors' knowledge, the effect of winglet on underwater gliders has not been investigated in detail. This paper aims to investigate the impact of winglet on hydrodynamic performance and gliding trajectory of a blended-wing-body unde...
This work addresses with sensitivity and uncertainty of the energy conversion of an oscillation-body wave energy converter with an artificial neural-network-based controller. The smart controller applies the model predictive control strategy to implement real-time latching control to the wave energy converter. Since the control inputs are future wa...
In this study, numerical prediction of a ship maneuvering in calm water area with varying water depth are carried out to investigate the shallow water effect on ship’s maneuverability. The system based prediction approach is adopted by establishing a 3 degrees of freedom (DOF) mathematical model based on the modular concept. The lateral added mass...
A passing ship sets up the wash waves, which are able to propagate a long distance with limited dissipation. The wash waves will induce transient loads on a moored vessel. In the present research, a hybrid model is developed to estimate the transient response of a moored vessel induced by another passing ship far away. The hybrid meth-od is based o...
A realistic turbulent wind field differs from a steady uniform one, in terms of the wind shear, the turbulence intensity and the coherence structure. Although it has been clear that an offshore floating wind turbine will behave differently in the turbulent wind, the individual effect of the above three items are not investigated sufficiently until...
An Innovative Semi-submersible platform Optimization Program (ISOP) has been developed to solve the multi-objective optimization problem for semi-submersible platforms (SEMI). Three types of SEMIs, including semi-submersible floating production unit (SEMI FPU), heave and vortex induced motion (VIM) suppressed semi-submersible (HVS) and semi-submers...
Real-time control has been widely adopted to enlarge the energy extraction of a wave energy converter (WEC). In order to implement a real-time control, it is necessary to predict the wave excitation forces in the close future. In many previous studies, the wave forces over the prediction horizon were assumed to be already known, while the wave forc...
This paper presents a study of the effect of model scale on the performance of a fixed Oscillating Water Column (OWC)type Wave Energy Converter (WEC). Tank tests at two different scales, including the effect of scaling of the test tanks to minimise the bias introduced by different wave blockage effects. CFD simulations based on Reynolds Average Nav...
The gap resonance between two advancing rectangular barges in side-by-side arrangement is investigated using a 3-D Rankine source method. A modified Sommerfeld radiation condition accounting for Doppler shift is applied for the low forward speed problem when the scattered waves could propagate ahead of the barges. Numerical studies are conducted to...
Considering the massive simulations required by the full long-term analysis, the environmental contour method is commonly used to predict the long-term extreme responses of an offshore renewable system during life time. Nevertheless, the standard environmental contour method is not applicable to the wind energy device due to the non-monotonic aerod...
The hydrodynamic performance of a vessel is highly dependent on its maneuvering waterways. The existence of the banks and bottom, as well as the presence of the other vessels, could have a significant influence on a ship's hydrodynamic behavior. In confined waterways, many researchers suspect the applicability of the classical potential flow method...
This paper studies the wave diffraction problem of two-dimensional moonpools in a two-layer fluid by using domain decomposition scheme and the method of eigenfunction expansion. Wave exciting forces, free surface and internal wave elevations are computed and analyzed for both surface wave and internal wave modes. The present model is validated by c...
The present research aims to utilize the multi-stable mechanism to increase the energy conversion of the oscillating-body wave energy converter (WEC). Considering that a majority of WEC concepts are linear and single-stable, a nonlinear spring-damper model is proposed to achieve the multi-stable mechanism. The system is either monostable or bistabl...
Abstract
This study focuses on the hydrodynamic interaction between two or three human swimmers in competitive swimming. Although the swimming performance of a single swimmer has been widely examined, studies on the interaction between multiple competitive swimmers are very rare. Experiments showed evidence that the drag of a swimmer could be modif...