Application of the immersed-body method to simulate wave-structure interactions

Application of the immersed-body method to simulate wave-structure interactions

Viré, A.C. (TU Delft Wind Energy)
Spinneken, J (External organisation)
Piggott, MD (External organisation)
Pain, CC (External organisation)
Kramer, SC (External organisation)

2016

This study aims at demonstrating the capability of the immersed-body method to simulate wave–structure interactions using a non-linear finite-element model. In this approach, the Navier–Stokes equations are solved on an extended mesh covering the whole computational domain (i.e. fluids and structure). The structure is identified on the extended mesh through a nonzero solid-concentration field, which is obtained by conservatively mapping the mesh discretising the structure onto the extended mesh. A penalty term relaxes the fluid and structural velocities to one another in the regions covered by the structure. The paper is novel in that it combines the immersed-body method with wave modelling and mesh adaptivity. The focus of the paper is therefore on demonstrating the capability of this new methodology in reproducing well-established test cases, rather than investigating new physical phenomena in wave–structure interactions. Two cases are considered for a bottom-mounted pile. First, the pile is placed in a numerical wave tank, where propagating waves are modelled through a free-surface boundary condition. For regular and irregular waves, it is shown that the wave dynamics are accurately modelled by the computational fluid dynamics model and only small discrepancies are observed in the close vicinity of the structure. Second, the structure is subjected to a dam-break wave impact obtained by removing a barrier between air and water. In that case, an additional advection equation is solved for a fluid-concentration field that tracks the evolution of the air–water interface. It is shown that the load associated with the wave impact on the structure compares well with existing numerical and experimental data.

Wave–structure interactions
Bottom-mounted pile
Immersed-body method
Unstructured adaptive meshes
Finite-element method
Computational fluid dynamics

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:7bcb653d-e70e-4082-8ecd-f7795418c173

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euromechflu.2015.10.001

0997-7546

European Journal of Mechanics B - Fluids, 55 (2), 330-339

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2016 A.C. Viré, J Spinneken, MD Piggott, CC Pain, SC Kramer