Estimation of Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity in Spatially Variable Fields Using Various Soft Computing Techniques

Abstract

Hydroelasticty is a subject of interest in marine science and technology involving the newlinemutual interaction of water waves and elastic bodies. It is a branch which deals with newlinethe elastic deformation of bodies which is in contact with liquids. Interdisciplinary newlinesubjects like this require the knowledge of structural mechanics, fluid mechanics, newlineconcepts of water wave propagation and boundary conditions. In this thesis, a newlinenumerical procedure has been proposed to analyze the equation of motion of the newlineelastic plate which is having a shallow draft, L/d and#8804; 1/20 (small thickness) with newlinearbitrary geometry subjected to monochromatic gravity waves.The numerical model is newlinecapable of investigating the Very Large Floating Structure (VFLS) at finite (0.05 newlineand#8804;h/and#955;and#8804; 0.5) and infinite (h/and#955;and#8804; 0.5) water depths. Herein, VLFS is considered to behave newlineas thin elastic plate due to its dimensions. VLFS of rectangular, triangular and newlinetrapezoidal geometries are considered and elastic motion or vertical deflections of newlinethese shapes have been studied. A hybrid numerical model which combines Boundary newlineElement Method (BEM) and Finite Element Method (FEM) is developed and used to newlinesolve fluid structure interaction between the elastic thin plate and water wave. A newlineHigher Order Boundary Element Method (HOBEM) has been adopted in order to newlinemaintain the same order basis function and contains the same nodes between BEM newlineand FEM. Two equations have been derived to develop the relationship between the newlinedisplacement of the plate and the velocity potential under the plate. The first equation newlineis derived from the equation of motion for the plate and is solved by Finite Element newlineMethod (FEM) to extract the displacement of the floating structure. The second newlineequation is from water wave theorywhich is based on Boundary Integral Equation newline(BIE) that relates the displacement of the floating plate and velocity potential using newlinefree-surface Green s function. A modified Green s function which differs from the newlinebygone Green s function has been developed by using