A domain decomposition approach to compute wave breaking (wave‐breaking flows)

A heterogeneous domain decomposition approach is followed to simulate the unsteady wavy flow generated by a body moving beneath a free surface. Attention being focused on complex free surface configurations, including wave‐breaking phenomena, a two‐fluid viscous flow model is used in the free surface region to capture the air–water interface (via a level‐set technique), while a potential flow approximation is adopted to describe the flow far from the interface. Two coupling strategies are investigated, differing in the transmission conditions. Both the adopted approaches make use of the inviscid velocity field as boundary condition in the Navier–Stokes solution. For validation purposes, two different two‐dimensional non‐breaking flows are simulated. Domain decomposition results are compared with both fully viscous and fully inviscid results, obtained by solving the corresponding equations in the whole fluid domain, and with available experimental data. Finally, the unsteady evolution of a steep breaking wave is followed and some of the physical phenomena, experimentally observed, are reproduced. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Critical viscous surface waves over an incline

Surface waves moving at a speed near some critical value on a viscous fluid flow down an incline are studied. An inhomogeneous equation of the Burgers type is derived as a model equation for the long time evolution of the surface waves, when the shear stress on the free surface and the deviation of the uneven bottom from an inclined plane are prescribed. A soliton-like wave and a shock-like front generated ahead of or behind a moving source on the free surface are discovered.     

Fully non‐linear free‐surface simulations by a 3D viscous numerical wave tank

A finite difference scheme using a modified marker‐and‐cell (MAC) method is applied to investigate the characteristics of non‐linear wave motions and their interactions with a stationary three‐dimensional body inside a numerical wave tank (NWT). The Navier–Stokes (NS) equation is solved for two fluid layers, and the boundary values are updated at each time step by a finite difference time marching scheme in the frame of a rectangular co‐ordinate system. The viscous stresses and surface tension are neglected in the dynamic free‐surface condition, and the fully non‐linear kinematic free‐surface condition is satisfied by the density function method developed for two fluid layers. The incident waves are generated from the inflow boundary by prescribing a velocity profile resembling flexible flap wavemaker motions, and the outgoing waves are numerically dissipated inside an artificial damping zone located at the end of the tank. The present NS–MAC NWT simulations for a vertical truncated circular cylinder inside a rectangular wave tank are compared with the experimental results of Mercier and Niedzwecki, an independently developed potential‐based fully non‐linear NWT, and the second‐order diffraction computation. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interaction of viscous wakes with a free surface

The interaction of laminar wakes with.free-surface waves generated by a moving body beneath the surface of an incompressible viscous fluid of infinite depth was investigated analytically. The analysis was based on the steady Oseen equations for disturbed flows.The kinematic and dynamic boundary conditions were linearized for the small-amplitude free-surface waves. The effect of the moving body was mathematically modeled as an Oseenlet.The disturbed flow was regarded as the sum of an unbounded singular Oseen flow which represents the effect of the viscous wake and a bounded regular Oseen flow which represents the influence of the free surface. The exact solution for the free-surface waves was obtained by the method of integral transforms. The asymptotic representation with additive corrections for the free-surface waves was derived by means of Lighthill‘s two-stage scheme. The symmetric solution obtained shows that the amplitudes of the free-surface waves are exponentially damped by the presences of viscosity and submergence depth.     

Generation of an average flow by a pulsating stream near a curved free surface

The generation of an average flow near a curved free surface under the action of small-amplitude harmonic translational vibrations is studied. It is found that, in contrast to the case of a flat non-deformable free surface, an average flow is generated in the viscous boundary layer. This flow, propagating in the bulk fluid, can be described by the steady-state Navier-Stokes equations with effective boundary conditions for the shear stresses. It is shown that, in contrast to the flow generation near a solid surface, the flow generated near the free surface depends on the fluid viscosity and the curvature of the surface.     

A NUMERICAL METHOD FOR SIMULATING NONLINEAR FLUID-RIGID STRUCTURE INTERACTION PROBLEMS

A numerical method for simulating nonlinear fluid-rigid structure interaction problems is developed. The structure is assumed to undergo large rigid body motions and the fluid flow is governed by nonlinear, viscous or non-viscous, field equations with nonlinear boundary conditions applied to the free surface and fluid-solid interaction interfaces. An Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) mesh system is used to construct the numerical model. A multi-block numerical scheme of study is adopted allowing for the relative motion between moving overset grids, which are independent of one another. This provides a convenient method to overcome the difficulties in matching fluid meshes with large solid motions. Nonlinear numerical equations describing nonlinear fluid-solid interaction dynamics are derived through a numerical discretization scheme of study. A coupling iteration process is used to solve these numerical equations. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate applications of the model developed.     

Modeling surface tension of a two‐dimensional droplet using smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Surface tension plays a significant role at the dynamic interface of free‐surface flows especially at the microscale in capillary‐dominated flows. A model for accurately predicting the formation of two‐dimensional viscous droplets in vacuum or gas of negligible density and viscosity resulting from axisymmetric oscillation due to surface tension is solved using smoothed particle hydrodynamics composed of the Navier‐Stokes system and appropriate interfacial conditions for the free‐surface boundaries. The evolution of the droplet and its free‐surface interface is tracked over time to investigate the effects of surface tension forces implemented using a modified continuous surface force method and is compared with those performed using interparticle interaction force. The dynamic viscous fluid and surface tension interactions are investigated via a controlled curvature model and test cases of nonsteady oscillating droplets; attention is focused here on droplet oscillation that is released from an initial static deformation. Accuracy of the results is attested by demonstrating that (i) the curvature of the droplet that is controlled; (ii) uniform distribution of fluid particles; (iii) clean asymmetric forces acting on the free surface; and (iv) nonsteady oscillating droplets compare well with analytical and published experiment findings. The advantage of the proposed continuous surface force method only requires the use of physical properties of the fluid, whereas the interparticle interaction force method is restricted by the requirement of tuning parameters.     

Numerical simulation of viscous flows with free surface around realistic hull forms with transom

This paper describes a method for simulation of viscous flows with a free surface around realistic hull forms with a transom, which has been developed based on a FINFLO RANS solver with a moving mesh. A dry‐transom model is proposed and implemented for the treatment of flows off the transom. The bulk RANS flow with the artificial compressibility is solved by a cell‐centred finite volume multigrid scheme and the free surface deformed by wave motions is tracked by satisfying the kinematic and dynamic free‐surface boundary conditions on the actual location of the surface. The effects of turbulence on flows are evaluated with the Baldwin–Lomax turbulence model without a wall function. A test case is modern container ship model with a transom, the Hamburg Test Case. The calculated results are validated and they agree well with the measured results in terms of the free‐surface waves and the total resistance coefficient. Furthermore, the numerical solutions successfully captured many important features of the complicated interaction of the free surface with viscous flows around transom stern ships. In addition, the convergence performance and the grid refinement studies are also investigated. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A numerical method for simulation of attached cavitation flows

A new numerical algorithm for attached cavitation flows is developed. A cavitation model is implemented in a viscous Navier–Stokes solver. The liquid–vapour interface is assumed as a free surface boundary of the computation domain. Its shape is determined with an iterative procedure to match the cavity surface to a constant pressure boundary. The pressure distribution, as well as its gradient along the wall, is taken into account in updating the cavity shape iteratively. A series of computations are performed for the cavitating flows across three kinds of headform/cylinder bodies: conic, ogival and hemispheric heads. A range of cavitation numbers is investigated for each headform/cylinder body. The obtained results are reasonable and the iterative procedure of cavity shape updating is quite stable. The superiority of the developed cavitation model and algorithm is demonstrated. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

非线性流体-刚体结构相互作用问题的一种数值模拟方法

给出了一种模拟非线性流体-刚体结构相互作用问题的数值方法.文中假定结构承受大的刚体运动,流体流动受非线性有粘或无粘的场方程支配并满足自由表面和两相耦合界面上的非线性边界条件,利用任意拉氏-欧氏(ALE)网格系统构造了数值模型.采用所探讨的多块数值格式,允许可动重造网格间有独立的相对运动,从而克服了流体网格与固体大运动匹配的困难.通过数值离散化,导出了描述非线性流固耦合动力学的数值方程并应用耦合迭代过程对其作了求解.通过算例,说明了所提出数值模型的应用.     

Oscillations of a vessel containing a viscous fluid

The oscillations of a rigid body having a cavity partially filled with an ideal fluid have been studied in numerous reports, for example, [1–6]. Certain analogous problems in the case of a viscous fluid for particular shapes of the cavity were considered in [6, 7]. The general equations of motion of a rigid body having a cavity partially filled with a viscous liquid were derived in [8]. These equations were obtained for a cavity of arbitrary form under the following assumptions: 1) the body and the liquid perform small oscillations (linear approximation applicable); 2) the Reynolds number is large (viscosity is small). In the case of an ideal liquid the equations of [8] become the previously known equations of [2–6]. In the present paper, on the basis of the equations of [8], we study the free and the forced oscillations of a body with a cavity (vessel) which is partially filled with a viscous liquid. For simplicity we consider translational oscillations of a body with a liquid, since even in this case the characteristic mechanical properties of the system resulting from the viscosity of the liquid and the presence of a free surface manifest themselves.The solutions are obtained for a cavity of arbitrary shape. We then consider some specific cavity shapes.     

Application of local grid refinement to vortex motion due to a solitary wave passing over a submerged body

A numerical method based on the streamfunction–vorticity formulation is applied to simulate the two‐dimensional, transient, viscous flow with a free surface. This method successfully uses the locally refined grid in an inviscid–viscous model to explore the processes of vortex formation due to a solitary wave passing over a submerged bluff body. The two particular bodies considered here are a blunt rectangular block and a semicircular cylinder. Flow visualization to track dyelines is carried out in the laboratory in order to confirm the validity of the numerical results. Numerical results examined by different grid configurations ensure the locally refined grid to be useful in practical application. Flow phenomena, including the vortex motion and wave patterns during non‐linear wave–structure interaction, are also discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An improved boundary element method for modelling a self-reacting point absorber wave energy converter

A numerical model based on a boundary element method (BEM) is developed to predict the performance of two-body self-reacting floating-point absorber (SRFPA) wave energy systems that operate predominantly in heave. The key numerical issues in applying the BEM are systematically discussed. In particular, some improvements and simplifications in the numerical scheme are developed to evaluate the free surface Green’s function, which is a main element of difficulty in the BEM. For a locked SRFPA system, the present method is compared with the existing experiment and the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS)-based method, where it is shown that the inviscid assumption leads to substantial over-prediction of the heave response. For the unlocked SRFPA model we study in this paper, the additional viscous damping primarily induced by flow separation and vortex shedding, is modelled as a quadratic drag force, which is proportional to the square of body velocity. The inclusion of viscous drag in present method significantly improves the prediction of the heave responses and the power absorption performance of the SRFPA system, obtaining results excellent agreement with experimental data and the RANS simulation results over a broad range of incident wave periods, except near resonance in larger wave height scenarios. It is found that the wave overtopping and the re-entering impact of out-of-water floating body are observed more frequently in larger waves, where these non-linear effects are the dominant damping sources and could significantly reduce the power output and the motion responses of the SRFPA system.     

Numerical simulations of inviscid and viscous free‐surface flows with application to nonlinear water waves

The purpose of the present study is to establish a numerical model appropriate for solving inviscid/viscous free‐surface flows related to nonlinear water wave propagation. The viscous model presented herein is based on the Navier–Stokes equations, and the free‐surface is calculated through an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian streamfunction‐vorticity formulation. The streamfunction field is governed by the Poisson equation, and the vorticity is obtained on the basis of the vorticity transport equation. For computing the inviscid flow the Laplace streamfunction equation is used. These equations together with the respective (appropriate) fully nonlinear free‐surface boundary conditions are solved using a finite difference method. To demonstrate the model feasibility, in the present study we first simulate collision processes of two solitary waves of different amplitudes, and compute the phenomenon of overtaking of such solitary waves. The developed model is subsequently applied to calculate (both inviscid and the viscous) flow field, as induced by passing of a solitary wave over submerged rectangular structures and rigid ripple beds. Our study provides a reasonably good understanding of the behavior of (inviscid/viscous) free‐surface flows, within the framework of streamfunction‐vorticity formulation. The successful simulation of the above‐mentioned test cases seems to suggest that the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian/streamfunction‐vorticity formulation is a potentially powerful approach, capable of effectively solving the fully nonlinear inviscid/viscous free‐surface flow interactions. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fully nonlinear modeling of radiated waves generated by floating flared structures

The nonlinear radiated waves generated by a structure in forced motion, are simulated numerically based on the potential theory. A fully nonlinear numerical model is developed by using a higher-order boundary element method （HOBEM）. In this model, the instantaneous body position and the transient free surface are updated at each time step. A Lagrangian technique is employed as the time marching scheme on the free surface. The mesh regridding and interpolation methods are adopted to deal with the possible numerical instability. Several auxiliary functions are proposed to calculate the wave loads indirectly, instead of directly predicting the temporal derivative of the velocity potential. Numerical experiments are carried out to simulate the heave motions of a submerged sphere in infinite water depth, the heave and pitch motions of a truncated flared cylinder in finite depth. The results are verified against the published numerical results to ensure the effectiveness of the proposed model. Moreover, a series of higher harmonic waves and force components are obtained by the Fourier transformation to investigate the nonlinear effect of oscillation frequency. The difference among fully nonlinear, body-nonlinear and linear results is analyzed. It is found that the nonlinearity due to free surface and body surface has significant influences on the numerical results of the radiated waves and forces.     

The solution of two‐dimensional free‐surface problems using automatic mesh generation

A new method is described for the iterative solution of two‐dimensional free‐surface problems, with arbitrary initial geometries, in which the interior of the domain is represented by an unstructured, triangular Eulerian mesh and the free surface is represented directly by the piecewise‐quadratic edges of the isoparametric quadratic‐velocity, linear‐pressure Taylor–Hood elements. At each time step, the motion of the free surface is computed explicitly using the current velocity field and, once the new free‐surface location has been found, the interior nodes of the mesh are repositioned using a continuous deformation model that preserves the original connectivity. In the event that the interior of the domain must be completely remeshed, a standard Delaunay triangulation algorithm is used, which leaves the initial boundary discretisation unchanged. The algorithm is validated via the benchmark viscous flow problem of the coalescence of two infinite cylinders of equal radius, in which the motion is due entirely to the action of capillary forces on the free surface. This problem has been selected for a variety of reasons: the initial and final (steady state) geometries differ considerably; in the passage from the former to the latter, large free‐surface curvatures—requiring accurate modelling—are encountered; an analytical solution is known for the location of the free surface; there exists a large body of literature on alternative numerical simulations. A novel feature of the present work is its geometric generality and robustness; it does not require a priori knowledge of either the evolving domain geometry or the solution contained therein. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A simple numerical technique for transient creep flows with free surfaces

A simple, but powerful iterative technique is presented for the numerical solution of the time-dependent flow of an incompressible viscous fluid with or without a free surface. The usual numerical stability restrictions related to the viscous acceleration terms are avoided using standard implicit differencing techniques. The properties and accuracy of the method are illustrated by several calculational examples.     

Inviscid instability of two-fluid free surface flow down an incline

The inviscid temporal stability analysis of two-fluid parallel shear flow with a free surface, down an incline, is studied. The velocity profiles are chosen as piecewise-linear with two limbs. The analysis reveals the existence of unstable inviscid modes, arising due to wave interaction between the free surface and the shear-jump interface. Surface tension decreases the maximum growth rate of the dominant disturbance. Interestingly, in some limits, surface tension destabilises extremely short waves in this flow. This can happen because of the interaction with the shear-jump interface. This flow may be compared with a corresponding viscous two-fluid flow. Though viscosity modifies the stability properties of the flow system both qualitatively and quantitatively, there is qualitative agreement between the viscous and inviscid stability analysis when the less viscous fluid is closer to the free surface.     

Transient Marangoni Waves Due to Impulsive Motion of a Submerged Body

The Oseen problem in a viscous fluid is formulated for studying the transient free-surface and Marangoni waves generated by the impulsive motion of a submerged body beneath a surface with surfactants. Wave asymptotics and wavefronts for large Reynolds numbers are obtained by employing Lighthill's two-stage scheme. The results obtained show explicitly the effects of viscosity and surfactants on Kelvin wakes     

A meshless method for numerical simulation of depth‐averaged turbulence flows using a k‐ϵ model

A three‐dimensional numerical model is developed to analyze free surface flows and water impact problems. The flow of an incompressible viscous fluid is solved using the unsteady Navier–Stokes equations. Pseudo‐time derivatives are introduced into the equations to improve computational efficiency. The interface between the two phases is tracked using a volume‐of‐fluid interface tracking algorithm developed in a generalized curvilinear coordinate system. The accuracy of the volume‐of‐fluid method is first evaluated by the multiple numerical benchmark tests, including two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional deformation cases on curvilinear grids. The performance and capability of the numerical model for water impact problems are demonstrated by simulations of water entries of the free‐falling hemisphere and cone, based on comparisons of water impact loadings, velocities, and penetrations of the body with experimental data. For further validation, computations of the dam‐break flows are presented, based on an analysis of the wave front propagation, water level, and the dynamic pressure impact of the waves on the downstream walls, on a specific container, and on a tall structure. Extensive comparisons between the obtained solutions, the experimental data, and the results of other numerical simulations in the literature are presented and show a good agreement. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.