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Numerical procedure for potential flow problems with a free surface

University of British Columbia

A numerical procedure based upon a boundary integral method for gravity wave making problems is studied in the time domain. The free-surface boundary conditions are combined and expressed in a Lagrangian notation to follow the free-surface particle's motion in time. The corresponding material derivative term is approximated by a finite difference expression, and the velocity terms are extrapolated in time for the completion of the formulations. The fluid-body intersection position at the free surface is predicted by an interpolation function that requires information from both the free surface and the submerged surface conditions. Solutions corresponding to a linear free-surface condition and to a non-linear free-surface condition are obtained at small time increment values. Numerical modelling of surface wave problems is studied in two dimensions and in three dimensions. Comparisons are made to linear analytical solutions as well as to published experimental results. Good agreement between the numerical solutions and measured values is found. For the modelling of a three dimensional wave diffraction problem, results at high wave amplitude are restricted because of the use of quadrilateral elements. The near cylinder region of the free surface is not considered to be well represented because of the coarse element size. Wave forces calculated on the vertical cylinder are found to be affected by the modelled tank length. When the simulated wave length is comparable to the wave tank's dimension, numerical results are found to be less than the experimental measurements. However, when the wave length is shorter than the tank's length, solutions are obtained with very good precision.

Text

2010-09-22

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28637

Mechanical Engineering

University of British Columbia

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