The sloshing response is crucial to the design and operation of aquaculture vessels and affects the safety of the culture equipment and the efficiency of the culture operation. A 1/50 scaled model was utilized to investigate the coupled sloshing response characteristics of a novel aquaculture vessel in a wave basin. Two wave directions (beam and head wave) and two filling levels (81.5% and 47.4%) are taken into account. The time-domain and frequency-domain characteristics of the sloshing response under the linear regular wave and extreme operational sea state were investigated using regular wave tests and irregular wave tests, respectively. The sloshing mechanism in the aquaculture tanks is complicated, due to the coupling effect between external waves, ship motion, and internal sloshing. In linear regular waves, the wave frequency mode dominates the sloshing response, which is larger under beam wave conditions than under head wave conditions and larger under half load conditions than full load conditions. The irregular wave test results confirmed the regular wave test conclusions, but the sloshing response has stronger nonlinearity, higher natural modes appeared, and the amplitude of the higher natural modes is also relatively larger.

Vortex-shedding flow induced by the vertical oscillation of a cylinder with bottom-attached disks of different diameter ratio D_d/D_c and thickness ratio t_d/D_c is studied by a 3D (three-dimensional) numerical model developed in this paper, and compared with the results obtained through 2D (two-dimensional) numerical model. The high-order upwind scheme is applied to stabilize the computation, and convergence is accelerated by the multi-grid method. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the differences between the 2D and 3D simulation results reveal the 3D effect on the flow field characteristics and hydrodynamic coefficients of the vertically oscillating cylinder with a bottom-attached disk. The 3D effect on the fluid field is mainly reflected in the significance of three vortex-shedding patterns: ω_x has a greater effect on the flow fields around the sharp edges relative to the vortices generated in the 2D simulation. In the slice along the axial orientation, the vortex effect of ω_y along the radial axis is smaller than that of ω_x along the circumferential direction, indicating the radial effect on the velocity more pronounced than the circumferential effect around the sharp edges of the disk. The rotational interaction ω_z of the fluid in the horizontal plane during the heave motion is insignificant. Based on the 2D and 3D simulation results, the turning points that separate the increasing regimes of the added mass coefficient and damping ratio are identified. The dependence of the turning point on the diameter ratio D_d/D_c and thickness ratio t_d/D_c are discussed in detail.

Tuned liquid dampers (TLDs) are widely used in structural vibration mitigation, but they are limited by their damping frequency to use as passive damping equipment. To enhance the damping performance of the conventional TLD, a unique layered tuned liquid damper (LTLD) filled with water and diesel is proposed. The interfacial wave coupling mechanism for broadband energy dissipation has not been previously explored in sloshing-type dampers. A series of frequency-sweeping tests were carried out in the laboratory to compare the vibration suppression performance of the proposed LTLD against conventional TLD. The dampers were installed on an elastic supporting structural platform (SSP) with a height of one meter, and the bottom was horizontally excited with different amplitudes and frequencies using a hexapod motion simulator. The results indicate that the LTLD showed a better damping performance than the TLD under small-amplitude excitation and achieved optimization at two peaks. The separation surface movement dissipated the liquid motion’s energy and enhanced the hydrodynamic force in the horizontal direction. However, the damping effect of the LTLD weakened when the two liquids were no longer immiscible under large-amplitude excitation. Therefore, we recommend utilizing the LTLD to improve structural damping performance when $d_{max}/L$< 0.04984. In addition, the LTLD reduced the maximum wall pressure by about 25% in the transient state under large-amplitude excitation. This study presents experimental evidence that a water–diesel LTLD achieves broadband damping through interfacial wave coupling. The stable interfacial waves enhance energy dissipation and excite new vibration mitigation frequencies, offering a novel approach to overcoming the narrow-band limitation of conventional TLD.

To investigate the leakage characteristics of damaged double-hull oil tanks in still water, this study conducted both model tests and numerical simulations on the leakage process of a damaged double-hull oil tank model. Based on a 75,000 DWT oil tanker, a scaled model was designed according to similarity criteria. The effects of different damaged locations (side-shell and bottom) and various breach sizes on the tank’s leakage behavior were examined. The evolution of multiphase flow inside the tank and the surrounding flow field was captured, and the leakage pressure under fixed model conditions was measured. The model test results indicate that larger breach sizes lead to a more rapid stabilization of the pressure load during leakage and the liquid exchange process. For side shell breaches, after an initial phase of pressure-difference-driven leakage, a density-driven flow develops at the stable liquid interface. Bottom breaches cause flooding that results in an oil sealing phenomenon at the bottom, leading to a pronounced oil–water stratification. Corresponding numerical simulations of the model tests were performed, and the results were compared and validated against the model test data.