Influence of temperature and salinity on hydrodynamic forces

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to introduce an innovative approach to offshore engineering so as to take variations in sea temperature and salinity into account in the calculation of hydrodynamic forces. With this in mind, a thorough critical analysis of the influence of sea temperature and salinity on hydrodynamic forces on piles like those used nowadays in offshore wind farms will be carried out. This influence on hydrodynamic forces occurs through a change in water density and viscosity due to temperature and salinity variation. Therefore, the aim here is to observe whether models currently used to estimate wave forces on piles are valid for different ranges of sea temperature and salinity apart from observing the limit when diffraction or nonlinear effects arise combining both effects with the magnitude of the pile diameter. Hence, specific software has been developed to simulate equations in fluid mechanics taking into account nonlinear and diffraction effects. This software enables wave produced forces on a cylinder supported on the sea bed to be calculated. The study includes observations on the calculation model's sensitivity as to a variation in the cylinder's diameter, on the one hand and, on the other, as to temperature and salinity variation. This software will enable an iterative calculation to be made for finding out the shape the pressure wave caused when a wave passes over will have for different pile diameters and water with different temperature and salinity.