Abstract
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been used to estimate the wave loading applied to a fully submerged body near the surface. The Navier-Stokes equations were used for the present study. In terms of modeling the fluid-solid interface, two different techniques are available in ANSYS CFX. One is the Rigid Body Method (RBM) and the other is the Immersed Solid Method (ISM). This paper compares the two modeling techniques in terms of accuracy and modeling flexibility. For this study, a CFD model of the NPS tow tank with wave generation and a submerged body was created to investigate different methods of solid body modeling. A comparison of the RBM and ISM was performed modeling a submerged rectangular body at different depths. The models produced similar results when the body was lower beneath the wave surface with limited fluid-solid interaction. As the amount of fluid-solid interaction increased, the RBM showed increased amounts of wave energy dissipation as compared to the ISM. This disruption of the wave energy resulted in the RBM showing smaller body forces and moments when compared to the ISM solid model. The increased wave energy dissipation in the RBM is likely caused by the different mechanism for modeling body-solid interaction. The numerical results were also compared to the experimental data.