A seakeeping analysis method for an air-lifted vessel

A seakeeping analysis in the frequency domain is presented to predict the motion response of an airlifted vessel (ALV) in waves. The ALV is supported by pressurised air in two separate cushion chambers; the pressure variation in the cushions has a significant effect on the motions of the vessel. The adiabatic gas law is used to couple cushion pressure and the free-surface elevation of water inside the chamber. Attention is focused on the waves generated by the pressure, and a method is presented to compute the corresponding free-surface elevation. New numerical schemes are proposed for calculating the threedimensional free-surface elevation for the four wave numbers. Numerical results of the free-surface elevation, escape area, escape volume and motion responses of the ALV are provided. & 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Modeling Pressure-Ionization of Hydrogen in the Context of Astrophysics

The recent development of techniques for laser-driven shock compression of hydrogen has opened the door to the experimental determination of its behavior under conditions characteristic of stellar and planetary interiors. The new data probe the equation of state (EOS) of dense hydrogen in the complex regime of pressure ionization. The structure and evolution of dense astrophysical bodies depend on whether the pressure ionization of hydrogen occurs continuously or through a ``plasma phase transition'' (PPT) between a molecular state and a plasma state. For the first time, the new experiments constrain predictions for the PPT. We show here that the EOS model developed by Saumon and Chabrier can successfully account for the data, and we propose an experiment that should provide a definitive test of the predicted PPT of hydrogen. The usefulness of the chemical picture for computing astrophysical EOS and in modeling pressure ionization is discussed.Comment: 16 pages + 4 figures, to appear in High Pressure Researc

A Force-Balanced Control Volume Finite Element Method for Multi-Phase Porous Media Flow Modelling

Dr D. Pavlidis would like to acknowledge the support from the following research grants: Innovate UK ‘Octopus’, EPSRC ‘Reactor Core-Structure Re-location Modelling for Severe Nuclear Accidents’) and Horizon 2020 ‘In-Vessel Melt Retention’. Funding for Dr P. Salinas from ExxonMobil is gratefully acknowledged. Dr Z. Xie is supported by EPSRC ‘Multi-Scale Exploration of Multi-phase Physics in Flows’. Part funding for Prof Jackson under the TOTAL Chairs programme at Imperial College is also acknowledged. The authors would also like to acknowledge Mr Y. Debbabi for supplying analytic solutions.Peer reviewedPublisher PD