Rigid and hinged very large floating structure (VLFS) dataset - Kelvin Hydrodynamics Laboratory

This dataset corresponds to the measurements performed at the Kelvin Hydrodynamics Laboratory at the University of Strathclyde, in August 2022, to assess the motion performance and internal loading of a rigid and hinged very large floating structure (VLFS) under regular waves. The VLFS was constructed with three pontoons and two hinges. The hinges were replaced with aluminium steel bars to built the rigid VLFS. The dimensions of each pontoon of the VLFS were 580 mm x 580 mm x 52 mm. Each pontoon was built with 2 mm layer of carbon fibre and a 50 mm layer of PVC foam.

The VLFS was tested in regular waves at two incidences: 0 degrees and 30 degrees. For 0 degree incidence, the wave frequencies tested ranged from 0.4 to1.6 Hz in intervals of 0.1 Hz. Four wave heights were tested, h=5, 10, 20 and 40 mm. For 30 degree incidence, the same range of frequencies were tested, but only one wave height, h=5 mm. Preliminary results for some of the data at 0 degrees incidence can be found in the conference paper: https://doi.org/10.36688/ewtec-2023-389.  Further analysis of this dataset and additional results are in preparation for a journal manuscript.

The following files are included as part of the dataset:

1. Motion files (Matlab files).
2. Strain gauge and wave height files (Matlab files).
3. Data description file - Description of files.
4. Test matrix - Test cases summarised with nomenclature used in files.
5. Matlab script to sort out position of motion spheres as depicted in Figure 1.
6. Video of the hinged VLFS subject to a train of regular waves at f=0.8 Hz, i.e. when the wavelength is of similar length to the length of the platform, i.e. f=0.8 Hz.

• The motion files contain the time series information recorded for each of the motion detection spheres. Because the motion raw data is not labelled sequentially, it is necessary to run the Matlab file included in the data repository to sort out the information of the spheres.
• The strain gauge files contain the raw strain gauge data (8 channels) and the wave gauge data with the file number describing the corresponding test in the test matrix.

The VLFS was equipped with 36 motion detection spheres and 8 strain gauges. The diagram and notation of each sphere is depicted in Figure 1. Figure 1 is available in the Data description document.