A Multiphysics Multiscale 3-D Computational Wave Basin Model for Wave Impact Load on a Cylindrical Structure

Abstract

A multiphysics multiscale finite-element based nonlinear computational wave basin (CWB) model is developed using LS-DYNA. Its predictive capability is calibrated using a large-scale fluid-structure interaction experiment conducted in a 3-dimensional wave basin to determine wave impact on a cylindrical structure. This study focuses on evaluating CWB accuracy using two wave excitation conditions — plane and focused solitary waves — and two cylinder arrangements — single and multiple cylinders. Water surface elevation and water particle velocity are predicted numerically for the fluid domain, obtaining horizontal force, overturning moment, and dynamic pressure on the cylindrical structure and calibrated against experimental measurement. The CWB model predicts wave motion characteristics — water surface elevation and velocity, and integrated structural response — horizontal force and overturning moment, for the given wave conditions well. Computation time increases and the predictive accuracy decreases as nonlinear fluid-structure interaction becomes increasingly complex. A study of computation settings for improving computation performance showed that a high-performance parallel-computing hardware platform is needed to model details of highly nonlinear physics of fluid flow including wave breaking and turbulence.