Abstract:
Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are widely utilized in marine environmental surveys, drilling support, and underwater rescue operations. ROVs are prone to encounter ocean internal solitary waves (ISWs) when working on the shelf and slope of the ocean. Ocean ISWs can induce horizontal and vertical flows during their propagation, posing a threat to the stability and safety of ROVs during their deployment, recovery, or operation. This paper utilizes the eKdV and KdV equations of continuous stratification to estimate the velocity fields induced by the depression and elevation ocean ISWs with similar amplitudes. The Morison’s equation is then used to estimate the forces of these two kinds of ocean ISWs on a ROV in order to compare the difference in acting forces exerted by the ISWs. Experiment results demonstrate that both depression and elevation ocean ISWs exert strong horizontal force on the ROV. The direction of the horizontal force at the same depth varies between the two types of ocean ISWs, with little difference for depression ocean ISWs but the horizontal forces in lower layer being twice that in upper layer for elevation ocean ISWs. The vertical force exerted by both types of ISWs on the ROVs is weaker when compared to the horizontal force.