Simulation Of Steep Waves Interacting With A Cylinder By Coupling Cfd And Lagrangian Models

This paper presents numerical modelling results of the interaction between a group of steep waves and a fixed vertical cylinder performed with a one-way coupled hybrid model. A set of experimental data is used to benchmark the accuracy of the modelling results. The wavemaker signal generated in the physical experiments is used to reproduce the incident wave conditions without a priori knowledge of the rest of the dataset. A Lagrangian numerical wave flume propagates the wave group, producing the nonlinear free surface elevation and wave kinematics with high accuracy in the vicinity of the cylindrical structure. This data is used as the input to the olaFlow CFD model, which calculates the wave-structure interactions. One-way coupling approaches based on boundary conditions and relaxation zones are tested and compared in terms of the recorded free surface elevation and pressures at the structure. The results present an adequate degree of accordance, and turbulence effects are found to be negligible in the simulations.