It’s Spring 20203 and Congratulations are in order for Stephanie and Eric at the Multi-Domain Laboratory!
Stephanie Lowell just published her work in Ocean Engineering
Lowell S., Irani R. A. (2023) Experimental validation of the plunger-type flow model for irregular waves, Ocean Engineering. Volume 279, 114463.
In this paper, a study of irregular waves generated with a plunger-type wavemaker with the inclusion of mean flow is conducted along with an analysis of the standard plunger-type flow (PTF) model. It was determined that for high frequencies, the standard PTF model exhibits amplification which when compared to theoretical models for piston- and flap-type wavemakers is implausible. Therefore, a correction to the PTF model has been proposed for use with irregular waves that limits the value of the wave amplitude to stroke amplitude ratio is set to one or less. Experimental validation of the correction is also given along with a study on the performance of the plunger system for generating the desired irregular Bretschneider wave spectrum. In this paper, multiple significant wave heights and peak frequencies are considered for no-flow and three mean flow cases. The experimental results showed that not only is the proposed correction valid for decreasing the percent error in the significant wave height but, plunger-type wavemakers are capable of accurately producing irregular spectra regardless of the inclusion of mean flow.
Check out our other publication here.
Eric Giroux was the recipient of an OGS award! Eric’s work involves using Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in maritime operations and their autonomous landing on ships. Some autonomous landing procedures have been developed, no strategies exist for landing on a ship without custom deck hardware or prior knowledge of the ship’s layout. Thus, he will be developing a novel Shipboard Landing Site Selection (SLSS) system to identify and select suitable landing sites before starting the landing procedure. This system aims to provide economic benefits to the multi-billion-dollar Canadian maritime industry by improving safety, reliability, and ease of operation of UAV applications, leading to a higher adoption rate of UAVs at sea.