Title：Making the potential theory perfect

Reporter：Xiaobo Chen  Director of International R&D Cooperation, Research Department, Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, France.

Time：8 November 2023 (Wednesday) 16:00~17:00

Venue：B1-c101,Guangzhou International Campus, South China University of Technology

Tencent Meeting ID：627-701-997

Abstract：

Under assumption of ideal fluid (also called perfect fluid in French) and irrotational flow, the classical potential theory as a fundamental concept to describe fluid flows has been well established and widely used in practice. Indeed, results obtained by applying the potential theory reflect the physics objectively. In the domain of marine and offshore engineering, methods based on the potential theory provide excellent results in comparison with those of model tests or/and in-situ measurements, and useful in engineering practice of designs and operations.

However, in some special cases, results predicted by the potential theory could be inconsistent with physical reality and present mathematical issues unnecessarily complex or simply unsolvable. For example, the added-mass and radiation damping coefficients in the vertical modes of a floating body have opposite tendency in 2D and 3D, while the ship waves predicted by the classical Kelvin theory are singular along the track behind the ship. When we investigate the reason behind, we find that the assumption of perfect fluid presents blemishes. Addressing fluid compressibility and viscous effects eliminate this imperfection. To make potential theory perfect, we need imperfection of fluid by challenging the hypothesis of perfect fluid.

Resume:

Xiaobo Chen, Director of International R&D Cooperation, Research Department, Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, France.Dr.

Xiaobo Chen is a research scientist, a graduate of the Tsinghua University (China) awarded in 1983 as a distinguished graduating student. In 1988, he got his Ph.D. in Hydrodynamics of Ecole Centrale Nantes (France). After the post-doctoral fellowship in Institute Français du Pétrole, he joined Bureau Veritas in 1991. He has worked in the Research Department of the Marine Division, then the Head of Hydrodynamics & Mooring Section. He has been member of the IACS working group WD-SL and the ISSC Technical Committee on Loads, and the chairman of recent IACS-HPT01 working on the harmonization of Common Structure Rules.

He has been very active in theoretical research on free surface flows and wave loading as well as applications to the seakeeping assessment of marine offshore structures. He has published more than 160 technical papers in major international conferences and journals. He was the Director of DTRC between 2014-2018 in Bureau Veritas Singapore. He has been the Director of International R&D Cooperation in Research Department of Bureau Veritas M&O in France since 2019.