Journal of Marine Science and Engineering — Open Access Journal

The wave overtopping flow can exert high hydraulic loads on the grass cover of dikes leading to failure of the cover layer on the crest and the landward slope. Hydraulic variables such as the near bed velocity, pressure, shear stress and normal stress are important to describe the forces that may lead to cover erosion. This paper presents a numerical model in the open source software OpenFOAM^® to simulate the overtopping flow on the grass-covered crest and slope of individual overtopping waves for a range of landward slope angles. The model provides insights on how the hydraulic forces change along the profile and how irregularities in the profile affect these forces. The effect of irregularities in the grass cover on the overtopping flow are captured in the Nikuradse roughness height calibrated in this study. The model was validated with two datasets of overtopping tests on existing grass-covered dikes in the Netherlands. The model results show good agreement with measurements of the flow velocity in the top layer of the wave, as well as the near bed velocity. The model application shows that the pressure, shear stress and normal stress are maximal at the wave front. High pressures occur at geometrical transitions such as the start and end of the dike crest and at the inner toe. The shear stress is maximal on the lower slope, and the normal stress is maximal halfway of the slope, making these locations vulnerable to cover failure due to high loads. The exact location of the maximum forces depends on the overtopping volume. Furthermore, the model shows that the maximum pressure and maximum normal stress are largely affected by the steepness of the landward slope, but the slope steepness only has a small effect on the maximum flow velocity and maximum shear stress compared to the overtopping volume. This new numerical model is a useful tool to determine the hydraulic forces along the profile to find vulnerable points for cover failure and improve the design of grass-covered flood defences. Full article

Preliminary results of the pilot study of the zooplankton in the region between the Ross and Scotia Seas from November 2017 to April 2018 are presented. In total, 53 zooplankton samples were collected in the top 100 m water layer using vertical tows of a 0.1 m² Juday net from four Ukrainian longliners operating during the Antarctic toothfish fishery. Total zooplankton abundance ranged from 3 to 2836 ind m⁻³ with a global mean of 360 ± 550 (±1 SD) ind m⁻³. The highest abundances were recorded at the northeastern Ross Sea. At those stations, small copepods (mainly Oithona spp., Oncaea spp., Ctenocalanus spp. and copepod nauplii) numerically dominated the samples. Total biomass ranged from 0.3 to 85 mg DW m⁻³ with a mean of 10.9 ± 14.5 mg DW m⁻³. The highest biomasses were recorded at the eastern Ross Sea, where pelagic tunicates Salpa thompsoni, siphonophores and ctenophora Callianira sp. accounted for >90% of total zooplankton biomass. At other stations, zooplankton biomass generally ranged from 5 to 20 mg DW m⁻³ with no clear pattern in distribution. The community composition was driven by the sampling latitude and/or season rather than longitudinally. This pilot study emphasized the unique opportunity to investigate zooplankton dynamics in the regions traditionally not sampled during the oceanographic surveys. It also created unprecedented opportunities to increase the seasonal and geographical zooplankton sampling coverage using ships of opportunity at a fraction of a dedicated oceanographic survey costs. The potential of such surveys are enormous in both providing invaluable information, contributing to existing long-term databases and enhancing an international collaboration in the Southern Ocean, particularly in light of recent modeling initiatives of the whole Antarctic system undertaken by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. Full article

In 1997, in front of the Pescara Harbour (Italy), a detached breakwater was constructed. In the successive years, the sediment transport due to the combined action of waves and coastal currents, in the area between the detached breakwater and the entrance of the Pescara Harbour, produced an accumulation of about of sediment per year. In this paper, the causes of the accretion of the bottom elevation in front of the Pescara Harbour entrance and the effects produced by the existing detached breakwater are investigated. The effects on the sediment transport of the introduction of a new submerged breakwater designed to protect the entrance of the harbour from sediment siltation are investigated. In particular, the ability of the designed submerged breakwater, located orthogonally to the longshore current, to intercept the aforementioned solid material and to significantly reduce the accretion of the bottom in the area in front of the harbour entrance, was numerically verified. Numerical simulations were carried out by means of a model of the bottom-change composed of two sub-models: a two-dimensional phase resolving model that is used to calculate the fluid dynamic variables changing inside the wave period and a second sediment transport sub-model to simulate the bottom changes, in which the suspended sediment concentration is calculated by the wave-averaged advection–diffusion equation. The equations of motion, in which the vector and tensor quantities are expressed in Cartesian components, are written in a generalised curvilinear coordinate system. The fully nonlinear Boussinesq equations are written in an integral form and used to simulate the velocity fields. Full article

This paper presents a series of dynamic simulations for a ship towed by kite. To ensure time efficient computations, seakeeping analysis with forward speed correction factors is carried out in the frequency domain and then transformed in the time domain by convolution. The seakeeping modeling is coupled with a zero-mass kite modeling assuming linear dependence of aerodynamic characteristics with respect to turning rate. Decoupled (segregated) and coupled (monolithic) approaches are assessed and compared in different environmental conditions. Results show that in regular beam waves, strong interactions between the kite and the ship motions are captured by the monolithic approach. Around the wave frequency, especially for the lower one tested (0.4 rad/s), a kite lock-in phenomenon is revealed. It is concluded that the mean kite towing force can be increased whereas the ship roll amplitude can even be decreased compared to a non-kite assisted ship propulsion configuration. Full article

A ship collision accident is one of the most dangerous and common types of maritime accidents. Traditional probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) of ship collision accidents is a methodology that can be adopted to ensure maritime safety. Nevertheless, a need for better approaches to model human behavior, such as risk identification, communication, and decision-making, has been identified. Such advanced PRA methods require a more explicit way of taking human factors into consideration than the traditional risk assessment methods. Hybrid causal logic (HCL) is an advanced PRA method due to its unique three-level framework that includes event sequence diagrams, fault trees, and Bayesian networks, which makes it suitable for modeling human behavior that is important to ship collision accidents. This paper discusses the applicability of the HCL methodology for the ship collision accident. Firstly, the event sequences of typical ship collision accidents are summarized based on the study of 50 accident investigation reports. Then, fault trees for mechanical failure events and the Bayesian networks for human error events are constructed to analyze the events in a structured way at a more detailed level. Finally, the three main end-state types of ship collision avoidance scenario have been quantified. The result of the probability of a ship collision accident is verified by estimating the annual frequency of collision accidents in the Singapore Strait. Comparing with the historical data, the estimation results are quite near to the real case. By taking advantage of the HCL methodology, the modeling of ship collision scenarios can be carried out at a deep logical level. At the same time, it is possible to combine a detailed analysis of various primary events with a comprehensive analysis at the system level. Full article

The oceanography sub-initiative of Canada’s Oceans Protection Plan was tasked to develop high-resolution nearshore ocean models for enhanced marine safety and emergency response, fitting into the multi-scale, multi-level nested operational ocean forecasting systems. For decision making on eventual 24/7 operational support, two ocean models (a structured grid model, NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean); and an unstructured grid model, FVCOM (Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model), were evaluated. The evaluation process includes the selection of the study area, the requirements for model setup, and the evaluation metrics. The chosen study area, Saint John Harbour in the Bay of Fundy, features strong tides, significant river runoff and a narrow tidal-river channel. Both models were configured with the same sources of bathymetry and forcing data. FVCOM achieved 50-100 m horizontal resolution in the inner harbour and included wetting/drying. NEMO achieved 100 m resolution in the harbour with a three-level one-way nesting configuration. Statistical metrics showed that one-year simulations with both models achieved comparable accuracies against the observed tidal and non-tidal water levels and currents, temperature and salinity, and the trajectories of surface drifters, but the computational cost of FVCOM was significantly less than that of NEMO. Full article

Industrialization and the growing consumption of medicines leads to global aquatic contamination. One of the antibiotics widely used against bacterial infections in both human and veterinary medicine is tetracycline. Despite its positive antibiotic action, tetracycline is resistant against degradation, and therefore it accumulates in the environment, including the aquatic environment, creating great health hazards, possibly stimulating antibiotic resistance of pathogenic organisms. In this research, aqueous suspensions of semiconductor nanoparticles CdS were used for photocatalytic activity studies in the presence of methylene blue as a model compound, and finally, in the presence of tetracycline, a broad-spectrum antibiotic widely used against bacterial infections, as well as a live-stock food additive. The mechanism and kinetic rate constants of photocatalytic degradation processes of methylene blue and tetracycline were described in correlation with the energy diagram of CdS nanoparticles. Full article

Although sea and ocean waves have been widely acknowledged to have the potential of providing sustainable and renewable energy, the emergence of a self-sufficient and mature industry is still lacking. An essential condition for reaching economic viability is to minimise the cost of electricity, as opposed to simply maximising the converted energy at the early design stages. One of the tools empowering developers to follow such a virtuous design pathway is the techno-economic optimisation. The purpose of this paper is to perform a holistic optimisation of the PeWEC (pendulum wave energy converter), which is a pitching platform converting energy from the oscillation of a pendulum contained in a sealed hull. Optimised parameters comprise shape; dimensions; mass properties and ballast; power take-off control torque and constraints; number and characteristics of the pendulum; and other subcomponents. Cost functions are included and the objective function is the ratio between the delivered power and the capital expenditure. Due to its ability to effectively deal with a large multi-dimensional design space, a genetic algorithm is implemented, with a specific modification to handle unfeasible design candidate and improve convergence. Results show that the device minimising the cost of energy and the one maximising the capture width ratio are substantially different, so the economically-oriented metric should be preferred. Full article

The present review considers the physicochemical and biological properties of polysaccharides (PS) from brown, red, and green algae (alginates, fucoidans, carrageenans, and ulvans) used in the latest technologies of regenerative medicine (tissue engineering, modulation of the drug delivery system, and the design of wound dressing materials). Information on various types of modern biodegradable and biocompatible PS-based wound dressings (membranes, foams, hydrogels, nanofibers, and sponges) is provided; the results of experimental and clinical trials of some dressing materials in the treatment of wounds of various origins are analyzed. Special attention is paid to the ability of PS to form hydrogels, as hydrogel dressings meet the basic requirements set out for a perfect wound dressing. The current trends in the development of new-generation PS-based materials for designing drug delivery systems and various tissue-engineering scaffolds, which makes it possible to create human-specific tissues and develop target-oriented and personalized regenerative medicine products, are also discussed. Full article

Over the last decade, bisphenol A (BPA) has become a chemical of concern in the marine environment. There is little data on BPA levels in the eastern Adriatic Sea, Croatian waters. This study provides concentrations of BPA in marine sediments and suspended matter sampled from the Kaštela Bay (the central part of the Adriatic Sea) for two years. The results obtained show that BPA in sediment samples ranged from 1.05 to 46.31 µg kg⁻¹, while they were higher in the suspended matter, ranging from 1.84 to 81.39 µg kg⁻¹. To demonstrate a possible correlation between BPA concentrations and other parameters in sediment and suspended matter, the granulometric composition and organic matter content were determined. There was no correlation between BPA and investigated sediment characteristics. To assess the possible effects of BPA on marine biota, its possible estrogenic effect was also investigated by calculating estradiol equivalent concentration (EEQ, µg kg⁻¹), the maximum value of which, in this study, was 0.0181 µg kg⁻¹ in the sediment samples and 0.0317 µg kg⁻¹ in suspended matter samples. Based on the presented results, it is unlikely that BPA could cause significant endocrine disruption to marine life in the study area. Full article

The aim of the present paper is to provide the state of the works in the field of hydrodynamics and computational simulations to analyze biomimetic marine propulsors. Over the last years, many researchers postulated that some fish movements are more efficient and maneuverable than traditional rotary propellers, and the most relevant marine propulsors which mimic fishes are shown in the present work. Taking into account the complexity and cost of some experimental setups, numerical models offer an efficient, cheap, and fast alternative tool to analyze biomimetic marine propulsors. Besides, numerical models provide information that cannot be obtained using experimental techniques. Since the literature about trends in computational simulations is still scarce, this paper also recalls the hydrodynamics of the swimming modes occurring in fish and summarizes the more relevant lines of investigation of computational models. Full article

In East Taiwan, coastal settlements are scattered and narrowly confined between the Coastal Mountain and the Pacific Ocean. These settlements are currently at risk as there is no room for retreat. Therefore, it is essential to conduct a comprehensive and continuous hazard assessment in these coastal residential areas. In order to avoid biased towards the natural environment, the factors that cannot easily be built within the geographic information system (GIS) database are distinguished by Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to conduct a vulnerability assessment of threats to coastal zones. The method: we used the east coast of Taiwan as an example, through GIS and statistical analysis in land-use status, vulnerable population groups and UAV landscape signs of indicators of erosion and accumulation. Through the main output of an intuition scatter map, the erosion landscape susceptibility, economical land-use exposure, and special population groups’ ratio allowed for the easy comparison of the vulnerability, risk level and resilience between different coastal settlements. These diverse observation aspects of risk assessment results can provide prevention and control strategies that meet the different needs of coastal risk management in restricting and strengthening the land-use development of communities. Full article

One analytical design problem involves constructing control laws for marine autopilot systems. Despite numerous known solutions, this problem can still be further developed by taking into account the actual conditions of the control system operation. An important issue for discussion is the feedback synthesis for marine ships with time delays in their rudders’ actuators. In this work, a new approach is proposed for providing all the desirable dynamic features of a closed-loop system with autopilot while taking into account the presence of a time delay. This approach is based on the predictive compensation of time delays via the specific transformation of an initially given reference controller with a special multipurpose structure. The applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method is further illustrated by a practical example of a controller design. Full article

The propulsive performance of a bio-inspired autonomous underwater glider (AUG) with active twin undulatory wings undergoing undulatory motion was investigated by numerically solving the viscous incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, coupled with the immersed boundary method. The aspect ratio (AR) effects of the undulatory wings were studied. The simulation results showed that with the increase of AR, the thrust force generated by the active twin undulatory wings showed a linear growth, while the propulsion efficiency of the AUG increased to the peak and then decreased. The optimum magnitude of AR around 2 was obtained in the current study. The vortex structures in the wake of the active twin wings are also presented and discussed. The conclusions acquired here could provide guidance for the new conceptual design of bio-inspired AUGs. Full article

Accurately estimating the probability of storm surge occurrences is necessary for flood risk assessments. This research models Long Island Sound using a coupled coastal circulation and wave model (FVCOM-SWAVE) to hindcast the 44 highest storms between 1950–2018 and fitted Poisson-GPD distributions to modelled water levels and wave heights. Floodwater elevations and significant wave heights for 10% (1/10), 3% (1/30), 2% (1/50), and 1% (1/100) annual exceedance probabilities are provided for all Connecticut coastal towns. The results show that both water levels and their corresponding return intervals are higher along the western coast of Connecticut than the eastern coast, whereas significant wave heights increase eastward. Comparing our model results with those from the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study (NACCS) shows that the mean NACCS results are higher for water levels and lower for significant wave heights for longer return periods. Likewise, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) results in large errors compared to our results in both eastern and western coastal Connecticut regions. In addition to evaluating historical risks, we also added a sea-level height offset of 0.5 m for 2050 estimates in order to examine the effect of rising sea-levels on the analysis. We find that sea-level rise reduces the return period of a 10-year storm to two years. We advise periodically updating this work as improved sea-level rise projections become available. Full article

The recently finalised Second Generation Intact Stability Criteria (SGISC), produced by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), contain a level 3 assessment, the so-called Direct Stability Assessment (DSA). This assessment can be carried out using either model experiments or simulations. The fact that such a choice is given implies that the methods are equivalent in accuracy. This assumption has been verified, for one case, by the Cooperative Research Ships (CRS) community. The verification was based on new model experiments and calculated results, using four different programs owned by different CRS members. Results of the verification of the parametric roll failure mode in regular waves were published before, but this study concerns results in irregular seas. The experimental and numerical results are compared in both probabilistic and deterministic manners. The probabilistic comparison showed that the simulation programs considered are sometimes conservative and sometimes non-conservative in the prediction of the probability of an extreme value. The deterministic comparison in head seas showed that parametric roll events were predicted in the simulations in a wave train that showed no sign of important roll events in the measurement. The deterministic comparison in the following seas, on the other hand, showed an accurate fit of experimental and numerical results. It is suggested that predictions could possibly be improved by adding non-linear diffraction forces to the numerical model. Full article

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an effective tool for ship resistance prediction and hull form optimization. A three-dimensional volume mesh is essential for CFD simulation, and mesh generation requires much time and effort. Mesh deformation can reduce the time for mesh generation and simulation. The radial basis function (RBF) and inverse distance weighted (IDW) methods are well-known mesh deformation methods. In this study, the two methods are compared and a novel mesh deformation method for hull form optimization is proposed. For the comparison, a circular cylinder polyhedral mesh was deformed to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 0012 mesh. The results showed that the RBF method is faster than the IDW method, but the deformed mesh quality using the IDW method is better than that using the RBF method. Thus, the RBF method was modified to improve the deformed mesh quality. The centroids of the boundary layer cells were added to the control points, and the displacements of the centroids were calculated using the IDW method. The cells far from the ship were aligned to the free surface to minimize the numerical diffusion of the volume of fluid function. Therefore, the deformable region was limited by the deformed boundary, which reduced the time required for mesh deformation. To validate its applicability, the proposed method was applied for varying the bow shape of Japan Bulk Carrier (JBC). The resistances were calculated with the deformed meshes. The calculation time was reduced to approximately one-third using the result of the initial hull form as the initial condition. Thus, the proposed mesh deformation method is efficient and effective enough for CFD-based hull form optimization. Full article

Over the past decade, the use of imaging devices to perform quantitative measurements has seen wide-scale adoption and has become integral to the emerging fields of research, such as computer vision and artificial intelligence. Recent studies, published across a wide variety of fields, have demonstrated a vast number of ways through which image-based measurement systems can be used in their respective fields. A growing number of studies have demonstrated applications in coastal and ocean research. Edge detection methods have been used to measure water surface and bedform elevation from recorded video taken during wave flume experiments. The turbulent mixing of air and water, induced by the breaking waves and the runup processes, poses a particular problem for the edge-detection methods, since they rely on a sharp contrast between air and water. In this paper, an alternative method for tracking water surface, based on color segmentation, is presented. A set of experiments were conducted whereby the proposed method was used to detect water surface profiles for various types of breaking waves interacting with a rubble mound breakwater. The results were further processed to compute the surface velocity during runup. The time-history of surface velocity is shown to closely parallel the point measurements taken nearby the instrumented armor unit. These velocities can potentially serve as boundary conditions for determining the dynamic loads exerted on the armour units. Further, the image processing results are used to remove the time-varying buoyant force from the measured force acting on an individual armour unit, providing additional insight into how the forces develop over time. Full article

The striped catfish Pangasianodon hypophthalmus is an important freshwater fish cultured in many countries where the collection of wild brooders is still widely practiced. Global farming development of this species makes use of significant natural resources that pose challenges for the genetic diversity of striped catfish. Hence, this study aims to conduct a systematic genetic diversity assessment of wild and farmed catfish stocks collected from four major pangasius-farming countries, using a new genotyping by sequencing platform known as DArT-seq technology. Our population genomic analyses using 7263 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) after high-quality-control showed that there were two distinct populations of striped catfish in the lower Mekong river: (i) wild catfish from Thailand and (ii) catfish from Cambodia and Vietnam. The genetic diversity was greatest (0.363) in the wild stock from Thailand, but it was lower in farmed and wild stocks in other countries (0.049 to 0.088). The wild stocks were more genetically diverse than the farmed animals (0.103 vs. 0.064). The inbreeding coefficient ranged from 0.004 and 0.109, with the lowest value (−0.499) in the wild animals from Thailand. Molecular inference methods revealed high degree of historical effective population size (1043.9–1258.4), but there was considerable decline in the contemporary estimates in all populations (10.8 to 73.6). Our additional analyses calculating divergent times and migration patterns showed that the wild catfish from Thailand stand out as separate lineages, while those from Cambodia and Vietnam are genetically identical. Our results also indicated that the cultured stock in Bangladesh originated from the lower part of the Mekong river. These findings have significant practical implications in the context of genetic selection and conservation of striped catfish in the region. Collectively, they will contribute to the sustainable development of the striped catfish sector in these countries. Full article