Asymptotic expansion of ship capsizing in random sea waves. I: First-order approximation. II: Second-order approximation (Q2564396)

(From authors' abstract.) The first passage of ship nonlinear roll oscillations in random sea waves is examined. The ship roll dynamics is described by a nonlinear stochastic differential equation which includes nonlinear wave drag force and nonlinear restoring moment. The nonlinear restoring moment is divided into a sine function plus a correction function. The unperturbed motion of the ship is studied as a classical pendulum problem in terms of elliptic functions. The mean exit time of the perturbed ship motion is described by Pontryagin's partial differential equation. The method of asymptotic expansion is employed to solve this equation. Within the framework of first-order approximation, the analysis reduces the Pontryagin equation to a second-order linear differential equation with variable coefficients. These coefficients are functions of the energy level of the ship. The solution of this equation is obtained in a closed form and is found to be well-behaved with resolvable singularities. The dependence of the mean exit time on the initial energy level, nonlinear drag coefficient, and excitation spectral density is graphically plotted. In the second part, a new coordinate system based on the canonical action-angle variables is used to express ship roll motion in terms of a set of Ito stochastic differential equations. The Pontryagin equation which describes the mean exit time of the system is solved using the method of asymptotic expansion. A second-order approximation is carried out. The solution includes the contribution of the boundary layer, which compensates for the residual in the boundary condition at the barrier. It is found that the second-order approximation solution yields better results and takes into account such effects as the mean value of the excitation and other additional nonlinearities which were not accounted for in the first-order approximation.