A numerical study of the hydrodynamics of an offshore fish farm using REEF3D

In this paper, the hydrodynamics of and non-linear interaction between the large offshore fish farm “ShenLan 1” and regular waves are investigated using the open-source CFD toolbox REEF3D. The framework consists of a rigid body dynamics solver for the frame structure coupled to a fluid solver including the shielding effects of the nets. The solver and grid independence are validated using a 2D numerical wave tank, a free decay test and a study of the wave loads on a rigid net panel. Then, the effects of regular wave parameters, the thickness of the vertical outer columns of the structure, and the variations of the aspect ratios on the loads, responses and maximum mooring tension forces are studied. It is concluded that the response motion is sensitive to the wave period rather than the wave height due to the longer duration of unidirectional wave loads acting on the frame. The frequent events of partial submersions and wave overtopping in rather steep waves are confirmed through the capturing of the free surface. The net system accounts for about 30% of the total drag but does not influence the structural response to a larger extend. The effect of the aspect ratio on the hydrodynamics is more distinct than that of the frame thickness. As a result of the study, the first step towards a systemic evaluation of the importance of different structural parts of an offshore fish cage for the expected responses is provided.

Drift Motion of Floating Bodies Under the Action of Green Water

Numerical simulations are peformed to model the dynamic motions of a free floating body exposed to water waves. The solid body has low freeboard and draft, and its upper deck can be washed by the steep waves. Thus, the green water phenomenon occurs as large waves interact with the floating body. The aim of the research is to improve the understanding of the green water emerging above the upper deck of a floating plate. A thin floating body with barriers is also modeled. For the case of the body equipped with barriers, no green water occurs. Green water has been seen to affect the wave field and the dynamic motions of the plate. It is observed that when water can wash the upper surface of the floating object, drift speed is slightly decreased as a proportion of the energy of waves is dissipated above the body. Water waves are seen to impact the upper surface of the thin floating body as the green water flows over its upper deck. Furthermore, water is seen to impact the plate as its front edge re-enters the water. The first water impact only occurs when the floating body is not equipped with any barrier. By sampling the numerical simulations, it is observed that the non-dimensional value of the impact pressure, resulting from the green water, is larger for the case of smaller wavelength.

A Numerical Investigation of Steep Irregular Wave Properties With a Mixed-Eulerian Lagrangian HOS Method

The design of structures at sea requires knowledge on how large and steep waves can be. Although extreme waves are very rare, their consequences in terms of structural loads, such as wave impact or ringing, are critical. However, modelling the physical properties of steep waves along with their probability of occurrence in given sea states has remained a challenge. On the one hand, standard linear and weakly nonlinear wave theories are computationally efficient, but since they assume that the steepness parameter is small, they are unable to capture extreme waves. On the other hand, recent simulation methods based on CFD or fully nonlinear potential solvers are able to capture the physics of steep waves up to the onset on breaking, but their large computational cost makes it difficult to investigate rare events. Between these two extremes, the High-Order Spectral (HOS) method, which solves surface equations, is both efficient and able to capture highly nonlinear effects. It may then represent a good compromise for long simulations of steep waves. Unfortunately, it is based on a perturbation expansion where the small parameter is the wave steepness, and consequently, simulations tend to become unstable when steep wave events occur. In this work, we investigate the properties of irregular waves simulated with a modified HOS method, in which the sea surface is described with a Lagrangian representation, i.e. by computing the position and the velocity potential of individual surface particles. By doing so, nonlinear properties of the surface elevation are simply captured by the modulation of the horizontal and vertical particle motion. The same steep wave is then described more linearly with a Lagrangian representation, which reduces the instabilities of the HOS method. The paper focuses on bi-chromatic waves and irregular waves simulated from a JONSWAP spectrum. We compare simulations performed with the standard HOS and the modified Lagrangian methods for various HOS-orders.

Comparison of Nonlinear Wave-Loading Models on Rigid Cylinders in Regular Waves

Monopiles able to support very large offshore wind turbines are slender structures susceptible to nonlinear resonant phenomena. With the aim to better understand and model the wave-loading on these structures in very steep waves where ringing occurs and the numerical wave-loading models tend to lose validity, this study investigates the distinct influences of nonlinearities in the wave kinematics and in the hydrodynamic loading models. Six wave kinematics from linear to fully nonlinear are modelled in combination with four hydrodynamic loading models from three theories, assessing the effects of both types of nonlinearities and the wave conditions where each type has stronger influence. The main findings include that the nonlinearities in the wave kinematics have stronger influence in the intermediate water depth, while the choice of the hydrodynamic loading model has larger influence in deep water. Moreover, finite-depth FNV theory captures the loading in the widest range of wave and cylinder conditions. The areas of worst prediction by the numerical models were found to be the largest steepness and wave numbers for second harmonic, as well as the vicinity of the wave-breaking limit, especially for the third harmonic. The main cause is the non-monotonic growth of the experimental loading with increasing steepness due to flow separation, which leads to increasing numerical overpredictions since the numerical wave-loading models increase monotonically.

Experimental Assessment of Vertical Shear Force and Bending Moment in Severe Sea Conditions

Recent studies have benchmarked the prediction of wave vertical bending moment (VBM) of ship in waves [1][2], and found significant scatter among the numerical codes. Unfortunately, experimental data in extreme waves, that are relevant to ship design, are not often easily accessible, nor completely fitted to rigorous comparison to numerical codes. Then, the improvement of numerical tools and the modelling of ship’s internal loads still requires accurate experimental data measured in steep waves (ratio wave height H to wavelength λ, H/λ = 0.1) where the ship behavior and loads are modified by non-linearities. Thus, in order to validate simulation codes, which underlies rules requirement, and to establish criteria that makes ships safer to sail in severe sea conditions, experiments are carried out in the 50m × 30m × 5m hydrodynamic and ocean engineering tank of Ecole Centrale Nantes. A 1/65th scaled model of a 6750-TEU containership is used. The ship is moored and several combinations of wavelength and wave height are tested. While segmented hulls are commonly instrumented with strain gauges, the present experiments are performed on a segmented hull with a 6DOF sensor located close to the amidship. This setting allows for a very stiff model which dramatically reduces the hydroelastic effects. According to previous study [1], the position of the sensor is chosen where the bending moment is supposed to reach a maximum value. The model motion is measured through a Qualisys IR tracking system and accelerometers are located on the fore and aft of the beam. Also, each of the 9 segments is equipped with a 3DOF dynamometer to measure the hydrodynamic loads on the hull. This allows for recovering the hydrodynamic loads on the segments and then to compute the shear force and bending moment discretized all over the ship length. A comparison is therefore possible with the 6DOF sensor. Details of the computations are given in the paper. A particular attention is paid to the reproducibility and repeatability of the tests. The innovative experimental setup and the measured data are presented in the paper. Based on previous studies [3], the effects of the non-linearities are also discussed.

Validation of Hydrodynamic Loads on a Large-Diameter Monopile in Regular Waves

Validated hydrodynamic load models for large-diameter support structures are increasingly important as the industry moves towards larger offshore wind turbines. Experiments at 1:50 scale with stiff, vertical, bottom-fixed, extra-large (9m and 11m diameter full-scale) monopiles in steep waves are conducted. The tests are carried out at two water depths, 27 m and 33 m. A range of regular waves, with varying period and amplitude, are used. The first, second, and third harmonics of the total wave loads, where measurements are available, are calculated with different methods. For the first harmonic of the force (and consequently the mudline moment), MacCamy-Fuchs gives the best agreement with experiments, especially for the larger diameter model. For the second harmonic, for the shortest waves the generalized FNV theory and Morison equation overpredict the forces, while for the longest (and largest) waves, the opposite is observed. The third harmonic of the force is generally overpredicted by the calculations.

Nonlinear Airy Wave Pulses on the Sea Surface

The possibility of self-acceleration of the water-wave pulse with a permanent envelope in the form of the nonlinear Airy function during its long propagation in deep water is experimentally and theoretically analyzed. This wave packet has amazing properties — accelerates without any external force, and preserves shape in a dispersive medium. The inverted Airy envelope wave function can propagate at velocity that is faster than the group velocity. We experimentally study the behavior of Airy water-wave pulses in a super-tank and long scaled propagation, to investigate its main properties, nonlinear effects and stability. Theoretical modeling analysis is based on the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. We investigate the scope of applicability, feasibility and stability conditions of nonlinear Airy wave trains in the deep water conditions; defining regimes of self-acceleration of the main pulse, immutability shape of Airy envelope; assessing the impact of nonlinearity and dissipation on the propagation of Airy waves. We analyzed the influence of the initial pulse characteristics on self-acceleration of wave packet and the stability of the envelope form. The anticipated results allow extending the physical understanding of the evolution of nonlinear dispersive waves in a wide range of initial conditions and at different spatial and temporal scales, from both theoretical and experimental points of view. Steep waves start to become an unstable, we observe spectrum widening and downshifting. Wave propagation is accompained by the intensive wave breaking and the generation of water-wave solitons.

Preliminary Experimental Study on the Influence of the Local Wind Field on Forces From Breaking Waves on a Circular Cylinder

The spatial localized influence of wind on wave induced load on a flexible cylinder has been assessed throughout a test series conducted in a wave-wind-current flume at Newcastle University. The tests are motivated from other experimental and numerical investigations showing air flow separation on the leeward side of steep waves that can lead to added wind energy transfer, which could suggest an increase in the impulsive wave loading. The waves are generated as focused waves, resulting in a plunging breaker, leading to an impulsive wave load. The test model was equipped with a load cell measuring the connection load. Due to the flexibility of the cylinder, the measured force response shows oscillations and dynamic amplification of the load. The maxima of the force responses are compared for the tests with and without wind. Another measure for comparison is the local and short-lived impulse, which is responsible for the amplification. This impulsive load is estimated from the load cell and acceleration measurements. For the tests in this study, the introduction of wind over the breaking waves does for some cases lead to a slight increase in the peak of the impulsive load and thereby the load response, although large scattering is present. Further investigations are needed to verify this effect. Some differences in the time series of the free surface elevation are observed when wind is present, but the maximum of the surface elevation does not change notably, and the slope is only minimally changed, meaning that this should not give basis for the differences in the loads.

Numerical Simulations of Breaking Waves and Steep Waves Past a Vertical Cylinder at Different Keulegan–Carpenter Numbers

A three-dimensional (3D) numerical two-phase flow model based on solving unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) equations has been used to simulate breaking waves and steep waves past a vertical cylinder on a 1:10 slope. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is employed to capture the free surface and the k–ω shear–stress transport (k–ω SST) turbulence model is used to simulate the turbulence effects. Mesh and time-step refinement studies have been conducted. The numerical results of wave forces on the structure are compared with the experimental data (Irschik et al., 2004, “Breaking Wave Loads on a Slender Pile in Shallow Water,” Coastal Engineering, Vol. 4, World Scientific, Singapore, pp. 568–581) to validate the numerical model, and the numerical results are in good agreement with the measured data. The wave forces on the structure at different Keulegan–Carpenter (KC) numbers are discussed in terms of the slamming force. The secondary load cycles are observed after the wave front past the structure. The dynamic pressure and velocity distribution, as well as the characteristics of the vortices around the structure at four important time instants, are studied.