A watercraft according to the present disclosure may include an outer hull that defines an interior or hull cavity, and a ballast system located within the hull cavity. The ballast system may include at least three ballast tanks longitudinally distributed along the hull cavity, and each of the tanks being configured to be independently operated enabling selective entrapment of ballast at three or more different longitudinal locations to enable an intentional shifting of the longitudinal center of gravity (LCG) of the watercraft relative to the design location of the LCG of the watercraft. The watercraft may include at least a forward, a center, and an aft ballast tank, and in some embodiments, additional tanks, in some cases in sponsons, may be included and/or one or more of the forward, center and aft tanks, may be further subdivided for additional active LCG control.

A method for predicting heaving motion parameters of a semi-submersible offshore platform based on heaving acceleration includes: in heaving motion of a semi-submersible offshore platform, representing heaving acceleration of the semi-submersible offshore platform based on a linear potential flow theory; considering a noise influence of a heaving motion measurement marine environment, a low-frequency influence caused by a slow change of the environment and an influence caused by a baseline drift error of an acceleration sensor, introducing a noise term, a low-frequency change term and a baseline drift error term, and uniformly representing the noise term, the low-frequency change term and the baseline drift error term by a unified Prony sequence; and removing a drift term from uniformly represented heaving acceleration, establishing a relationship between the heaving acceleration and heaving motion parameters in terms of the remaining Prony sequence with the drift term being removed, and estimating the heaving motion parameters.

A width-adjustable packaging bag shaper, a bag maker, a packaging machine, and a method. The packaging machine including the bag maker, a traction device and a heat sealing device are respectively arranged above the bag maker, and a width adjustment device adjusts the distances between different sub bottom plates in a front bottom plate and a rear bottom plate by using a leadscrew and slide block mechanism, and then adjusts the width of a bottom plate. The leadscrew and slide block mechanism is used as the width adjustment device of the automatic width-adjustable noodle packaging bag shaper system, and four bottom plates are respectively fixed to the width adjustment device, so the leadscrew and slide block mechanism in operation is accurate in range of adjustment, is suitable for various widths of packaging bags, and has very important significance for the three-dimensional shaping effect of the packaging bags.

Disclosed herein are aquatic substructures capable of supporting a weight such as a wind tower and turbine. The aquatic substructures may include a central column and at least one buoyancy container connected by means of a system of cables and beams as described herein.

An offshore structure includes an adjustably buoyant hull including a plurality of vertical columns and a plurality of horizontal pontoons. Each pontoon extends between a pair of the columns. The adjustably buoyant hull is configured to receive a topside. Each column has a central axis, an upper end, and a lower end. Each pontoon has a longitudinal axis, a first end coupled to one of the columns, and a second end coupled to another one of the columns. The offshore structure also includes a foundation assembly attached to a lower end of the hull. The foundation assembly includes a column skirt extending downward from the lower end of each column and a pontoon skirt extending downward from a bottom surface of each pontoon.

The present invention provides a novel floating and renewable energy-powered desalination vessel, which also functions as a wind turbine generator and wave energy generator platform. With energy derived from the wind and waves, the vessel performs reverse osmosis within a vertically positioned cylindrical section extending below a buoyancy chamber. The cylindrical section contains reverse osmosis membranes located above a seawater screening and filtration system, which serve as ballast. The entire vessel and power systems are configured to have the center of mass below the center of buoyancy, forming a vertically stable floating structure with minimum pitch, roll, and wave heave in high sea states. The electric power generated is utilized internally to produce desalinated water or hydrogen from the desalinated water's electrolysis, power an onboard data center, or power delivery to a shoreside power grid. In addition to a wind turbine generator and a wave energy generator, a photovoltaic array or a marine current generator may be utilized to power these applications. Alternatively, the desalination vessel operates with the assistance of shore-based power provided by cable.

A moored floating offshore wind semi-submersible platform with at least three columns characterized in that columns are supported on a T-shaped underwater hull made up of two elongated pontoons, where one pontoon is perpendicular to the other pontoon and a method that allow that the semi-submersible platform is constructed in hull-assemblies and blocks at a first location, transported efficiently to a second location close to the final offshore location where the hull-assemblies and blocks may be assembled quay-side while floating in the water. The platform will support at least one wind turbine on a supporting structure (tower) but may also support two turbines and in the latter case the platform will be moored offshore with a mooring turret to allow the platform to align in a favourable direction to the wind.

A method of assembling and deploying a floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) platform includes floating a buoyant floater and a hollow outer tank in a floating assembly, placing permanent ballast material in the outer tank to define a mass, and sinking the mass to a seabed. The buoyant floater is moved to a position over the mass. Transit lines are attached between a lifting device in the buoyant floater and the mass to define a FOWT platform. The mass is lifted to a point directly under the buoyant floater and the FOWT platform is towed to an installation site. Mooring lines are attached between anchors in the seabed and the buoyant floater, and the mass is lowered to a depth wherein suspension lines attached thereto are taught, the mass with the suspension lines defining a suspended mass. The transit lines are then stored or removed from the mass.

A method of ballasting a vessel comprises positioning a vessel having a first draft adjacent to or underneath an offshore installation. The vessel has at least one ballasting tank and at least one port in fluid communication with the at least one ballasting tank. The at least one ballasting tank is arranged to selectively adjust the flow of ballast water in and out of the at least one ballasting tank. The method comprises pushing down from the offshore installation on the vessel to increase the draft of the vessel from the first draft to a second draft. The method further comprises opening the at least one port when the vessel is at the second draft and the at least one port is below a waterline. The method also comprises filling at least part of the at least one ballasting tank.

A wind turbine includes tower, a nacelle mounted at the top of the tower, a rotor mounted rotatable relatively to the nacelle about a rotation axis and includes at least one blade, wherein the blade, when rotating about the rotation axis, is configured to span a swept area, and a control device which is configured to control an actuator so as to move the swept area.