Due to the strong effect of the ISW fluid field, the the motion trajectory of the submersible would be greatly disturbed, the submersible moves up and down during the whole process. In this section, the motion characteristic of the suspended submersible under ISW is investigated, and the influence of the initial submerged depth of the submersible
and the wave amplitude of ISW
on the interaction effect is fully discussed. In order to simplify the numerical case analysis below, the relevant physical quantities such as submerged depth and motions of the structure are converted to dimensionless form by the following expression:
4.1. Dynamic Responses of the Suspended Submersible under ISW
In this section, the numerical simulation is conducted to investigate the dynamic interaction characteristic of the submersible under ISW fluid field. The suspended submersible is placed at the upper layer fluid (
) and the amplitude of ISW is set as
, other parameters are the same as Sec. 3.1.
Figure 11 gives the whole interaction process between the movable submersible and ISW surface through the velocity vector contours. It can be observed that the motions of the submersible are always dominated by the internal wave fluid field. As the ISW surface propagates near or away from the submersible in the horizontal direction, the submersible moves down firstly and then moves up quickly.
Figure 12 shows the time history of the motion responses of the suspended submersible located at upper layer fluid (
). In order to describe the interaction process more conveniently, the whole interaction process is divided into three stages according to the amplitude of the heave motion which marked as I, II, III in
Figure 12. The two adjacent stages are separated by vertical black dashed lines. Stage. I (0s-80s), the ISW propagates forwards and gradually approaches the submersible, the submersible moves slowly driven by the ISW fluid field; Stage. II (80s-140s), the submersible dives to the maximum submerged depth under the action of the internal wave fluid field while the submersible moves along the direction of the ISW propagation; Stage. III (140s-200s), the submersible quickly floats to the initial suspended surface while the submersible moves to the positive amplitude and then moves backward for a short distance in the horizontal direction.
Under the guidance of the ISW fluid field, the suspended submersible moves and its moving speed changes with the relative horizontal distance to the ISW surface. While the submersible is far from the wave surface, the motion speed is relatively low. By contrast, while ISW surface propagates to close to the submersible, the submersible will be strongly disturbed by the core fluid field, and its moving speed will increase significantly. Due to the high horizontal velocity of the ISW fluid field, the driven motion of the suspended submersible in the horizontal direction is most significant. Moreover, the propagation phase velocity of the ISW is much larger than the horizontal moving velocity of the submersible, the submersible stops moving and does not continue to follow the fluid field of ISW after moving for a certain distance along the positive propagation direction of the ISW.
In the vertical direction, at the first two stages, the ISW propagates forwards and gradually approaches the submersible. Under the action of ISW fluid field near the right side of the wave surface, the submersible continues to dive, and its diving speed increases as the ISW surface approaches the submersible,
Figure 11 (a) -
Figure 11 (e) shows the diving process of the submersible. The submersible reaches its dropping amplitude at the end of the stage. II (Time=140s), as shown in
Figure 11 (e), at this time, the submersible is just located above the trough of ISW. Therefore, the dropping amplitude of the submersible is less than the wave amplitude of ISW. At stage. III, as shown in
Figure 11(f) -
Figure 11 (h), the submersible quickly moves up and returns to the initial suspended surface under action of the fluid field near the left wave surface.
In the pitch direction, the pitch angle of the submersible
has hardly changed at the first two stages, and only generates a small angle which is less than 0.5° under the influence of the fluctuation of the tail wave at stage. III, as shown in
Figure 11(h). It is also noted that the motion responses of the submersible in other three directions are not significant because the ISW approximates a two-dimensional wave.
The motion of the suspended submersible is almost dominated by the ISW fluid field during the whole process.
Figure 13 shows the overall motion trajectory of the suspended submersible located at the upper layer fluid. The suspended submersible floats or dives with the fluctuation of the wave surface and its motion trajectory resembles a counterclockwise semi ellipse. The motion amplitude of the submersible in the
x direction is nearly 14 times larger than that in the
z direction. And the initial point and ended point of the motion trajectory are almost on the same vertical plane. It is also worth noticing that the submersible always moves in the upper layer fluid medium and never penetrates the wave surface during the whole process. The submersible only moves to be close to or far from the wave surface under the fluid field in the vertical direction. It can be seen from
Figure 14, the submersible moves vertically away from the wave surface at stage. II and approaches the wave surface at stage. III.
In order to illustrate the effect of the recovery moments of the submersible on ensuring the stability of the attitude of submersible. Another case whose recovery moments is set as
is simulated.
Figure 15 gives the comparisons of the motion responses of the suspended submersible with or without the recovery moments. The surge motions of submersible with the recovery moments is totally equal to that without the recovery moments. In the heave motion, there are slight differences between the submersible with recovery moments and that without recovery moments. However, the roll and pitch motions of the submersible without recovery moments are much larger than that contained with recovery moments. It can be seen that recovery moments play an important role on maintaining the stability of its attitude.
4.2. The Effect of the Initial Suspended Depth on the Motion Response of the Suspended Submersible
In section 4.1, the interaction characteristics of a suspended submersible located at the upper layer fluid (
) is discussed. The motion behaviors of the submersible at different initial submerged positions are significantly different due to the flow field and density field. In order to explore the effects of the initial depth on the dynamic kinematic properties of the suspended submersible, this section sets eight cases with various initial suspended positions, as shown in
Table 2 and
Figure 16.
Figure 17 gives the velocity vector contours to show the interaction process between the ISW fluid field and the suspended submersible at different initial submerged depths (
). It can be found that the the vertical motion characteristic of the submersible located at different positions are similar, while the significant differences are existed in longitudinal motion. Moreover, during the whole process, all the submersibles only move in the single medium and do not penetrate the wave surface. Considering the interaction effect between the ISW fluid field and the suspended submersible, in addition to focusing on the induced motions of the submersible under ISW, the interference of the submersible's motion on the ISW fluid field can not be ignored. As shown in
Figure 17, the ISW fluid field especially for the wave surface is disturbed by the motions of the submersible, the interference effect of the submersible to the ISW fluid field becomes more significant as the submersible get closed to the wave surface. However, the characteristic length of the submersible
is one order of magnitude smaller than the wavelength of the ISW
, the interference of the submersible's motion on the ISW fluid field is relatively limited and can usually be ignored in practical physical context. In the laboratory experiment, the scale of the structure is frequently overestimated which may result in some errors.
Figure 18 gives the motion responses of the suspended submersible at different submerged depths under the action of ISW with the same wave amplitude (
). Due to the opposite flow velocity directions between the upper and lower layer fluids, there are significant differences in the longitudinal motion response of the suspended submersible located at the upper and lower layer fluid. When the suspended submersible is located at or above the wave interface (
), the submersible driven by the ISW fluid field moves along the propagation direction of the ISW with significant longitudinal displacements. And the longitudinal motion amplitude of the submersible completely immersed in the upper layer fluid (
) is much larger than that of the submersible exactly located at the fluid interface (
); The submersible located below the wave interface (
) undergoes the significant directional change movement for twice in the longitudinal motion, and the submersible ultimately moves for a certain distance in the opposite direction of the ISW propagation relative to its initial position. Its longitudinal motion amplitude is smaller than that of the submersible located above the wave interface. Besides, for the submersible located at the same fluid medium (
or
), the influence of the initial position of the submersible on the longitudinal motion response is not significant while leaves slight differences in the motion amplitude. Generally speaking, the longitudinal motion amplitude of the submersible decreases with the increase of the distance from the submersible to the pycnocline. And the longitudinal motion characteristic of submersible is consistent with the vertical distribution characteristics of horizontal flow velocity in the internal wave flow field, that is, the horizontal velocity of the flow field decreases with the increase of distance from the interface.
Regarding the heave motion, the motion characteristic of the submersible located at different initial suspended depths is similar. The submersible firstly dives to the amplitude and then quickly floats up. However, the motion process of the suspended submersible located at the different positions in the heave direction still remain some differences, as shown in
Figure 18(b). When the suspended submersible dives to the dropping amplitude, the submersible at the wave interface (
) is located exactly at the trough, the submersible at the upper fluid (
) is located above the trough while the submersible at the lower fluid interface (
) is located just below the trough. The vertical motion of the submersible located at the fluid interface (
) is completely synchronized with the ISW surface. For the submersible located at the same medium (
or
), the amplitude of the dropping depth decreases and the time to reach the amplitude increases with an increase of the distance to the ISW interface. Moreover, the dropping amplitude of the submersible located at the lower layer fluid decreases proportionally with increasing of distance to the wave interface.
Regarding the pitch motion, there are significant differences in the longitudinal inclination angle of the submersibles located at different positions, as shown in
Figure 18(c). The pitch motion of the submersible (
) located at the interface always fluctuates with the ISW surface, and the pitch angle is always equal to the wave inclined angle at the submersible's position, as shown in
Figure 17(b). When the submersible dives near the right wave surface, its burial angle increases due to the uneven distribution of the internal forces acting on the surface of the submersible. When the submersible dives to the ISW trough, its pitch angle exactly returns zero degrees. When the submersible floats up on the left wave surface, the bow angle of the submersible increases with wave inclination angle. For the submersible located above the wave interface (
), there is little change in the pitch angle during the whole process. The submersible located below the wave interface (
) only generates a small inclination angle while approaching the core fluid field of the ISW, and the amplitude of the inclination angle is less than 3°. Similarly, the amplitude of the longitudinal inclination angle decreases as its relative distance to the wave surface increases.
Figure 18(d) shows the overall motion trajectory of the submersible under the action of internal wave field. The motion trajectory of the submersible located at the lower layer fluid (
) is exactly the same as the trajectory of the fluid field and its shape like as an unclosed clockwise ellipse. As the submerged depth increases, the longitudinal motion responses of the submersible is not affected, but its vertical motion response decreases proportionally, and its motion trajectory becomes flatter; The trajectory of the submersible located at the interface (
) is shaped like a "V" shape; The trajectory of the submersible located at the upper fluid (
) is shaped like a semi ellipse with a large eccentricity rotating counterclockwise.
4.3. The Effect of the Wave Amplitude on the Motion Response of the Suspended Submersible
The ISW fluid field with larger wave amplitude has higher induced flow velocity which may result in the huge threat to underwater vehicles. In order to investigate the effect of the wave amplitude on the motion responses of the suspended submersible, in this section, six cases with three different ISW amplitudes (
) for the submersible located at the upper and lower fluid layer (
,
) are set, and the other parameters are the same as the
Section 4.1, as shown in
Table 3 and
Figure 19.
Figure 20 gives the motion responses of the suspended submersible located at the upper layer fluid (
) and the lower layer fluid (
) under the action of ISW with different ISW amplitudes. The driven motion characteristic of the suspended submersible under ISW at different wave amplitude are similar and only leaves some differences on its motion amplitudes. With an increase in the amplitude of ISW, the motion amplitude of the submersible increases, especially in the surge and heave directions. However, the influence of the ISW amplitude acting on the pitch motion of the submersible is not significant compared with the above mentioned two directions. And the submersible reaches its motion amplitude in the pitch direction while approaches the core fluid field of ISW.
For the submersible located at the lower layer fluid (), due to the complexity of the flow field at the lower layer fluid, and the surge motion of the submersible has significant multiple changes. Moreover, the time for the submersible to reach the motion amplitude in the surge and heave directions decreases as the wave amplitude increases. However, for the submersible located at the upper layer fluid (), with an increase of the wave amplitude, the surge motion is almost completely synchronized and the motion amplitude also increases proportionally.
As shown in
Figure 20, the motion trajectory of the submersible located at the upper layer fluid (
) is a clockwise semi ellipse, while the trajectory of the submersible located at the lower fluid (
) shaped like a counterclockwise unclosed ellipse. The ISW amplitude does not change the shape of the submersible's motion trajectory, but only determines the amplitude of its motion trajectory. The range of the motion trajectory is positively correlated with the ISW amplitude in the
x-o-z plane.