new

Get trending papers in your email inbox!

Subscribe

Daily Papers

byAK and the research community

Nov 5

An Exactly Solvable Ekman Layer with a Fractional-Order Stress Closure

The classical theory of the wind-driven surface layer of a rotating ocean closes the momentum balance with a local flux-gradient law, in which the turbulent stress at a given depth is proportional to the shear at that depth. It predicts a surface current deflected forty-five degrees from the wind, which exceeds most direct measurements. This study asks what follows when locality is relaxed. Beginning from the exact integral relation between turbulent stress and mean shear, and requiring the memory kernel to carry no preferred vertical scale, we obtain a power-law kernel and therefore a stress law of fractional order. The resulting equation cannot be posed on the velocity, because the fractional derivative of a bounded profile vanishes at the surface, so the wind stress cannot be applied, while the alternative definition of the derivative leaves the surface current unbounded. Posed on the stress instead, the problem is solvable in closed form in Mittag-Leffler functions at every order between zero and one. The surface deflection then depends on the closure order alone and is smaller than forty-five degrees throughout, whereas the depth-integrated transport stays exactly normal to the wind, because that constraint follows from the momentum balance and not from the closure. The far field decays as a power law rather than exponentially, and its amplitude vanishes in the local limit, so that limit is singular. Under a suddenly applied stress the surface transient decays algebraically. Three independent algorithms agree closely, and no observational or model data are used.

  • 6 authors
·
Sep 18

Matrix structure and convergence behavior of the matched eigenfunction method for computing heave wave forces on generalized concentric bodies

Structural survival of offshore structures is crucial for the growing marine economy. Calculating the added mass, radiation damping, and excitation coefficients to quantify wave loads with the traditional boundary element method (BEM) presents a computational bottleneck. The matched eigenfunction expansion method (MEEM), a long-known but rarely-used alternative, offers computational benefits due to its semi-analytical nature. However, previous work fails to directly compare its accuracy and computational performance with BEM, leaving the extent of its utility unknown. Furthermore, the geometry-dependent convergence for cylindrical and slanted geometries has not yet been documented, making the method's practicality for general geometries unclear. This paper presents a unifying MEEM framework for modeling an arbitrary number of fixed or heaving surface-piercing annular cylinders with continuous and radially-monotonic body profiles, and explores the method's block matrix structure, convergence behavior, ability to accurately approximate slanted geometries, and computational advantages over the BEM solver Capytaine. The numerical experiments show that MEEM can compute hydrodynamic coefficients of slanted geometries within 5% of Capytaine, even for angles as steep as 15 degrees from vertical. Finally, MEEM can achieve 2% convergence of its hydrodynamic coefficients an order of magnitude faster than Capytaine with a matrix size two orders of magnitude smaller, making it a computationally effective alternative to traditional BEM solvers. These contributions enable hydrodynamic analysis of a broad range of shapes with increased speed and confidence, paving the way for future optimization studies to yield improved designs.

  • 6 authors
·
May 18

Spall Failure of Coral Skeleton beneath Gas-Laden Canopies: An Idealized Blast-Fishing Model

Improvised explosives used for fishing on shallow Indonesian reefs shatter coral skeleton, yet the damage they cause has been described largely through empirical radii and ecological surveys. We formulate an idealized model of how free gas held within a coral canopy modifies the shock loading that such a charge delivers to skeletal plates. The canopy is treated as a relaxed bubbly mixture whose shock impedance follows from the conservation of mass and momentum, and the reef is represented as a layered column of water, canopy, skeletal plate, and canopy struck at normal incidence. Three closed-form results emerge. Above a crossover pressure set by the void fraction and the stiffness of seawater, the canopy becomes nearly transparent to the shock. The impulse transmitted through any lossless layered stack is independent of the canopy, so gas redistributes the pulse in time without changing its total push. A plate carries tension after reflection from its lower face only when the canopy impedance falls below a threshold fixed by the plate thickness and the pulse duration, which defines a critical thickness. For a one-kilogram charge directly overhead, a gas-rich canopy more than triples the standoff at which a twelve-centimeter plate spalls while shortening the standoff at which it is crushed. A prescribed daily cycle of photosynthetic gas makes the same charge markedly more damaging at noon than at night. Bubble dynamics show that the canopy does not reach equilibrium within the pulse, so the results are best read as upper bounds.

  • 10 authors
·
Sep 25

Sound propagation in realistic interactive 3D scenes with parameterized sources using deep neural operators

We address the challenge of sound propagation simulations in 3D virtual rooms with moving sources, which have applications in virtual/augmented reality, game audio, and spatial computing. Solutions to the wave equation can describe wave phenomena such as diffraction and interference. However, simulating them using conventional numerical discretization methods with hundreds of source and receiver positions is intractable, making stimulating a sound field with moving sources impractical. To overcome this limitation, we propose using deep operator networks to approximate linear wave-equation operators. This enables the rapid prediction of sound propagation in realistic 3D acoustic scenes with moving sources, achieving millisecond-scale computations. By learning a compact surrogate model, we avoid the offline calculation and storage of impulse responses for all relevant source/listener pairs. Our experiments, including various complex scene geometries, show good agreement with reference solutions, with root mean squared errors ranging from 0.02 Pa to 0.10 Pa. Notably, our method signifies a paradigm shift as no prior machine learning approach has achieved precise predictions of complete wave fields within realistic domains. We anticipate that our findings will drive further exploration of deep neural operator methods, advancing research in immersive user experiences within virtual environments.

  • 5 authors
·
Aug 9, 2023