Three-dimensional numerical wave tank simulations on fully nonlinear wave–current–body interactions

Abstract:

A finite-difference scheme and a marker-and-cell (MAC) method are used for numerical wave tank (NWT) simulations to investigate the characteristics of nonlinear wave motions and their interactions with a stationary three-dimensional body in the presence of steady uniform currents. The Navier–Stokes (NS) equation is solved in the computational domain, and the boundary values are updated at each time-step by a finite-difference time-marching scheme in the frame of a rectangular coordinate system. The fully nonlinear kinematic free-surface condition is satisfied by the marker–density function technique developed for two fluid layers. The incident waves are generated from the inflow boundary by prescribing a velocity profile resembling the motions of a flexible flap wavemaker, and the outgoing waves are numerically dissipated inside an artificial damping zone located at the end of the tank. Using the NS–MAC NWT, nonlinear wave and current interactions around a stationary vertical truncated circular cylinder are studied, and the results are compared with the experimental results of Mercier and Niedzwecki, a time-domain NWT based on linear potential theory, a fully nonlinear NWT, and a second-order diffraction computation.