A Semi-Infinite Numerical Wave Tank Using Discrete Particle Simulations

With an increasing number of offshore structures for marine renewable energy, various experimental and numerical approaches have been performed to investigate the interaction of waves and structures to ensure the safety of the offshore structures. However, it has been very expensive to carry out real-scale large experiments and simulations. In this study, numerical waves with various relative depths and a wide range of wave steepness are precisely simulated by minimizing the wave reflection with a mass-weighted damping zone located at the end of a numerical wave tank (NWT). To achieve computational efficiency, optimal variables including initial spacing of smoothed particles, calculation time step, and damping coefficients are studied, and the numerical results are verified by comparison with both experimental data and analytical formula, in terms of wave height, particle velocities, and wave height-to-stroke ratio. Those results show good agreement for all wave steepness smaller than 0.067. By applying the proposed methodology, it is allowed to use a numerical wave tank of which the length is smaller than that of the wave tank used for experiments. The developed numerical technique can be used for the safety analysis of offshore structures through the simulation of fluid-structure interaction.