Finite volume arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian schemes using dual meshes for ocean wave applications

Abstract

For reasons of efficiency and accuracy, water wave propagation is often simulated with potential or inviscid models rather than Navier-Stokes solvers, but for wave-induced flows, such as wave-structure interaction, viscous effects are important under certain conditions. Alternatively, general purpose Navier-Stokes (CFD) models can have limitations when applied to such free-surface problems when dealing with large amplitude waves, run-up, or propagation over long distances. Here we present an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) algorithm with special care to the time-stepping and boundary conditions used for the free-surfaces, integrated into Code_Saturne, and we test its capabilities for modeling a variety of water wave generation and propagation benchmarks, and finally consider interaction with a vertical cylinder. Two variants of the mesh displacement computation are proposed and tested against the discrete Geometric Conservation Law (GCL). The more robust variant, for highly curved or sawtoothed free-surfaces, uses a Compatible Discrete Operator scheme on the dual mesh for solving the mesh displacement, which makes the algorithm valid for any polyhedral mesh. Results for standard wave propagation benchmarks for both variants show that, when care is taken to avoid grids with excessive numerical dissipation, this approach is effective at reproducing wave profiles as well as forces on bodies.