Free-Surface Flow Simulations With Interactively Moving Bodies

The simulation of free-surface flow around moored or floating objects faces a series of challenges, concerning the flow modelling and the numerical solution method. One of the challenges is the simulation of objects whose dynamics is determined by a two-way interaction with the incoming waves. The ‘traditional’ way of numerically coupling the flow dynamics with the dynamics of a floating object becomes unstable (or requires severe underrelaxation) when the added mass is larger than the mass of the object. To deal with this two-way interaction, a more simultaneous type of numerical coupling is being developed. The paper will focus on this issue. To demonstrate the quasi-simultaneous method, a number of simulation results for engineering applications from the offshore industry will be presented, such as the motion of a moored TLP platform in extreme waves, and a free-fall life boat dropping into wavy water.

The Study on the Influence of Pipe-Soil Interaction on VIV for Different Free Span Types

Subsea pipeline laid on the seabed will experience free span when the lay path is long and seabed is rugged. Hydrodynamic loads caused by the currents around the pipeline can induce oscillations in both cross-flow and in-line directions. This phenomenon is called vortex-induced vibration (VIV) which is the most common case that could induce serious fatigue problems. The pipe-soil interaction is one of the main factors that influence the vibration. In this paper, a study focusing on the effect of pipe-soil interaction on VIV for different types of free span is presented. The Milan wake oscillator is applied to calculate the dynamic response induced by VIV in Orcaflex, and the results are compared with experimental data to identify its validity. A sensitivity study is also performed to study the parameter influence of the Milan wake oscillator model. Four types of free span (including the multiple free spans) are modeled in Orcaflex and time domain VIV analysis is carried out to study the influence of pipe-soil interaction. Comparison among different types of free span is discussed. The influence of structural damping is studied for flexible pipe only because its influence on steel pipe is negligible. The influence of structural damping on flexible pipe is studied by means of a predefined moment-curvature curve. In addition, several cases are studied to investigate the influence of tension on VIV by Milan wake oscillator.

Validation Study of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics in Fluid and Structure Interaction and the Comparison to Boundary Element Method

The purpose of this research is to validate the usage of Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method in solving fluid-structure interaction problems as well as study its advantages and disadvantages compared to another well-known technique Boundary Element Method (BEM). The goal is achieved by 1) evaluating the Response Amplitude Operator (RAO) and 2) analyzing the drifting motion of a 1:10 scaled 3m-discus oceanographic buoy developed by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), using both experimental and numerical approaches. For the experimental study, the testing was carried out in an 8-m long wave tank and the buoy motions were measured using non-intrusive techniques. For numerical analysis, the project used DualSPHysics — open source code — and ANSYS AQWA — one of the leading software widely used in the marine applications — to simulate all the experimental scenarios via SPH and BEM techniques respectively. It is observed that while BEM has clear advantages in computational time and the ability to study applicable range of frequencies, SPH, in addition to its capability to simulate drifting motion of the floating structure, has shown to outperform the RAO predictions from BEM (especially in low frequency region). In higher frequency regions, the lack of experimental data hinders the conclusion on which method might be more suitable, as both have their own limitations.

Numerical Simulation of Single Thruster in Open Water

The flow interaction between a dynamic positioning (DP) thruster and a floating structure (semi-submersible) hull attracted quite a lot of attention in recent years. In this study, the Spalart-Allmaras RANS model has been evaluated to simulate single thruster rotated in the open water with OpenFOAM. The actual thruster geometry has been meshed with structured grid, and the gap between the blade tip and nozzle is carefully treated. The Moving Reference Frame (MRF) method is used for steady-state simulation, and the arbitrary mesh interface (AMI) method is applied to simulate the rotating blade for transient dynamic mesh simulation. The numerical results are compared with available experimental and numerical data, especially in the wake flow. Good agreement is shown in this study.

Kill Line Model Cross Flow Inline Coupled Vortex-Induced Vibration

Currents and waves cause flow-structure interaction problems in systems installed in the ocean. Particularly for bluff bodies, vortices form in the body wake, which can cause strong structural vibrations (Vortex-Induced Vibrations, VIV). The magnitude and frequency content of VIV is determined by the shape, material properties, and size of the bluff body, and the nature and velocity of the oncoming flow. Riser systems are extensively used in the ocean to drill for oil wells, or produce oil and gas from the bottom of the ocean. Risers often consist of a central pipe, surrounded by several smaller cylinders, including the kill and choke lines. We present a series of experiments involving forced in-line and cross flow motions of short rigid sections of a riser containing 6 symmetrically arranged kill and choke lines. The experiments were carried out at the MIT Towing Tank. We present a systematic database of the hydrodynamic coefficients, consisting of the forces in phase with velocity and the added mass coefficients that are also suitable to be used with semi-empirical VIV predicting codes.

The Effect of Gap Space on Flow Induced Motions of Two Square Cylinders in Tandem

When the Reynolds number is in the range of 30,000 and 100,000, the vibration characteristics of two square cylinders with elastic support and different tandem spacing are investigated by 2-D URANS simulations using OpenFOAM. In this work, the center to center distance (d) of two square cylinders is an important parameter and it increases from 2 to 6 diameters (D). Amplitude responses and frequency responses of first and second square cylinders are discussed and compared. The amplitude and frequency responses of first square cylinder are verified by the experiment results of Nemes et al. and they agree well in changing trends. The simulation results indicate that the amplitudes of the two square cylinders with different tandem spacing show an increasing trend with reduced velocity increasing. The maximum amplitudes reach 1.06D and 1.10D for the first and the second cylinders, respectively. And the oscillation of the second square cylinder is enhanced when d = 4D. The center to center distance has no significant effect on the frequency ratios of two square cylinders.

Large Eddy Simulations of Flow Past Two Pipelines in Tandem in Close Proximity to the Seabed

Three-dimensional Large Eddy Simulations (LES) with Smagorinsky subgrid scale model have been performed for the flow past two free-spanning marine pipelines in tandem placed in the vicinity of a plane wall at a very small gap ratio, namely G/D = 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5. The ratio of cylinder center-to-center distance to cylinder diameter, or pitch ratio, L/D, considered in the simulations is taken as L/D = 2 and 5. This work serves as an extension of Abrahamsen Prsic et al. (2015) [1]. In essence, six sets of simulations have been performed in the subcritical Reynolds number regime at Re = 1.31 × 104. Our major findings can be summarized as follows. (1) At both pitch ratios, the wall proximity has a decreasing effect on the mean drag coefficient of the upstream cylinder. At L/D = 2, the mean drag coefficient of the downstream cylinder is negative since it is located within the drag inversion separation distance. (2) At L/D = 2, a squarish cavity-like flow exists between the tandem cylinders and flow circulates within the cavity. A long lee-wake recirculation zone is found behind the downstream cylinder at G/D = 0.1. However, a much smaller lee-wake recirculation zone is noticed at L/D = 5 with G/D = 0.1. (3) At L/D = 2, the reattachment is biased to the bottom shear layer due towards the deflection from the plane wall, which leads to the formation of the slanted squarish cavity-like flow where the flow circulates between the tandem cylinders.

Prototype Reynolds Number VIV Tests on a Full-Scale Rigid Riser

Slender offshore structures in deep water subjected to currents may experience vortex-induced vibrations (VIV), which can cause significant fatigue damage. Extensive experimental researches have been conducted to study the VIV in the past several decades. However, most of the experimental works have small-scale models and relatively low Reynolds number (Re) - ‘subcritical’ or even lower Reynolds number regime. There is a lack of full understanding the VIV in prototype Re flow regime. Applying the results with low Re to a full scale riser with prototype Re might have uncertainties due to the scaling effects. In addition, the surface roughness of the riser is also an important parameter, especially in prototype Re regime. In present study, two full-scale rigid riser models with different surface roughness ratios were tested in the towing tank of MARINTEK in 2014. Stationary tests, pure cross-flow (CF) free oscillation tests and forced/controlled motion tests were carried out. Several conclusions could be made: • The drag coefficient is dependent on the Re number and surface roughness ratio. • At critical and supercritical flow regimes, the displacement amplitude ratio is less sensitive to Re than that at lower Re. The displacement amplitude ratio in subcritical flow regime is significantly larger than that in critical and supercritical flow regimes. • Two excitation regions for the ‘smooth riser’ and one excitation region for the ‘rough riser’ are identified.

Validation of Open-Source SPH Code DualSPHysics for Numerical Simulations of Water Entry and Exit of a Rigid Body

Water entry and exit of a body is an important topic in naval hydrodynamics as these phenomena play relevant roles both for offshore structures and vessels. Water entry and exit events are intrinsically transient and represent intense topological changes in the system, with large amounts of momentum exchange between phases. At its onset, they can be characterized by highly localized, both in space and time, loads on the vessel, influencing both the local structural safety of the structure and the global loads acting on it. The DualSPHysics code is proposed as a numerical tool for the simulation of fluid and floating object interaction. The numerical model is based on a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics discretization of the Navier-Stokes equations and Newton’s equations for rigid body dynamics. This paper examines the water impact, fluid motions, and movement of objects in the conventional case studies of object entry and exit from still water. A two dimensional body drop analysis was carried out demonstrating acceptable agreement of the movement of the object with published experimental and numerical results. The velocity field of the fluid is also captured and analyzed. Simulations for water entry and exit of a buoyant and neutral density cylinder compares well with previous experimental, numerical, and empirical studies in penetration, free surface evolution and object kinematics. These results provide a good foundation to evaluate the accuracy and stability of the DualSPHysics implementation for modeling the interaction between free surface flow and free moving floating objects.

Numerical Simulations of Regular and Irregular Wave Forces on a Horizontal Semi-Submerged Cylinder

Two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulations have been performed using OpenFOAM (an open source CFD software package [1]) and waves2Foam (an OpenFOAM based add-on library for wave generations and absorption [2]) to investigate free surface waves past one fixed horizontally semi-submerged cylinder. The 2-D simulations are carried out by solving Navier-Stokes equations which are discretized based on finite volume method (FVM). Volume of Fluid (VOF) method is employed to capture the free surface in the numerical wave tank. Validation studies have been performed by comparing the numerical results of Stokes first-order wave past a semi-submerged circular cylinder with the published experimental data at different incident wave properties. The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental data. Subsequently, regular and irregular waves past semi-submerged cylinder at different wave heights and the wave lengths are computed numerically to investigate the effect of the wave height and wave length on wave-structure interaction. The numerical results for irregular waves are compared with those induced by regular waves.