Application of Direct-Forcing IB-VOF Method to the Simulation of Wave Deformation by Submerged Structures

Abstract

PENG, W.; LEE, KWANG-HO, and MIZUTANI, N., 2012. Application of direct-forcing IB-VOF method to the simulation of wave deformation by submerged structures. In this work, direct numerical simulation is employed to estimate the deformations of free-surface waves by submerged fixed structures using the immersed boundary method and volume of fluid method. The direct-forcing immersed boundary method is applied to handle solid object boundaries that are replaced with a proper force in the Navier–Stokes equations imposed on the body surface. The volume of fluid method is employed to track the free surface. Submerged obstacles of different shapes, including rectangles, trapezoids, and semicircles, are investigated to validate the ability of the numerical model to simulate fluid structure problems involving geometrically complex solid boundaries. The comparisons between the results of the developed numerical model, available experimental data, and previous numerical estimations reveal a favorable agreement between the water particle velocity fields as well as the free-surface profiles. The fully nonlinear phenomenon such as the flow separation and vortex generation can be reproduced and captured accurately using the proposed model.