MECHANICAL ANALYSIS AND SIZING OPTIMIZATION OF OFFSHORE OIL SLICK TRACKING BUOY

O shore oil slick tracking buoy can be used to lock and locate oil trajectory when oil spill occurs. The adsorption capacity of oil-absorbing material inside buoy and the ocean winds has a great influence on positioning capability of buoy. The stronger adsorption capacity, the more closely integrated with oil and better positioned. First, from the analysis of oil- absorbing material stress, this paper measures the wind load of oil- absorbing material by using the principle of lever amplification in laboratory, and studies the variation trend of wind load along with disc diameter. The result is that wind load increases linearly along with increasing disc diameter. The study on adhesion of material along with increasing disc diameter indicates that adhesion has quadratic relations with the disc diameter. With the increase of disc diameter, the adhesion increases sharply. Second, studies suggest that adhesion should be composed of intermolecular force, surface tension and viscosity shear force. Intermolecular force is the main force, and surface tension and viscosity shear force is less than intermolecular forces from 1 to 2 orders of magnitude. Finally, based on the principle that adhesion force should be stronger than wind loads when buoy is working properly, the law of wind and adhesion force along with increasing disc diameter based on the experiment is extended to the large wind speed and large disc diameter. This paper studied the influence on changing diameter on force state of disc under bad sea conditions. The result is that the minimum disc diameter, adapted to the harsh sea conditions, is 38 cm.