Numerical Modeling of Breaking Wave Kinematics and Wave Impact Pressures on a Vertical Slender Cylinder

Author(s):  
Mayilvahanan Alagan Chella ◽  
Hans Bihs ◽  
Dag Myrhaug ◽  
Øivind Asgeir Arntsen

Wave loads from breaking waves on offshore wind turbine (OWT) substructures in shallow waters still remain uncertain. The interaction of breaking waves with structures is characterized by complex free surface deformations, instantaneous impact of the water mass against the structure, and consequently large wave forces on the structures. The main objective of the paper is to investigate wave impact pressures and kinematics during the interaction of breaking waves with a vertical cylinder using the open-source computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model REEF3D. The model is based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations coupled with the level set method and k–ω turbulence model. Three wave impact conditions are considered in this study. The numerically simulated free surface deformations around the cylinder during the breaking wave interaction are also presented for different wave impact conditions. For three wave impact conditions, the wave impact pressure and the horizontal and vertical components of the particle velocity are computed in front of the cylinder and analyzed. The pressure and velocity profile at their maximum values are also examined and discussed. In addition, the total force is calculated for three breaking conditions and they are correlated with the pressure and kinematics during the interaction.

Author(s):  
Mayilvahanan Alagan Chella ◽  
Hans Bihs ◽  
Dag Myrhaug ◽  
Øivind Asgeir Arntsen

Wave loads from breaking waves on offshore wind turbine (OWT) substructures in shallow waters still remain uncertain. The interaction of breaking waves with structures is characterized by complex free surface deformations, instantaneous impact of the water mass against the structure and consequently large wave forces on the structures. The main objective of the paper is to investigate wave impact pressures and kinematics during the interaction of breaking waves with a vertical cylinder using the open-source CFD model REEF3D. The model is based on the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations coupled with the level set method (LSM) and k-ω turbulence model. Three wave impact conditions are considered in the present study. The numerically simulated free surface deformations around the cylinder during the breaking wave interaction are also presented for different wave impact conditions. For three wave impact conditions, the wave impact pressure and the horizontal and vertical components of the particle velocity are computed in front of the cylinder and analyzed. The pressure and velocity profile at their maximum values are also examined and discussed. In addition, the total force is calculated for three breaking conditions and they are correlated with the pressure and kinematics during the interaction.


Author(s):  
Johan M. Peeringa ◽  
Koen W. Hermans

In the WiFi-JIP project, the impact of steep (and breaking) waves on a monopile support structure was studied. Observations during model tests showed that large tower top accelerations occur due to a slamming wave. Using experiments and simulations results, a new formulation of the design load for a slamming wave was developed. Instead of the embedded stream function, as applied in industry, the wave train is generated with the nonlinear potential flow code Oceanwave3D. On the wave train a set of conditions is applied to find the individual waves, that are closest to the prescribed breaking wave and most likely cause a slamming impact. To study the effect of the new slamming load formulation on different sized offshore wind turbines, aero-hydroelastic simulations were performed on a classic 3MW wind turbine, a modern 4MW wind turbine and a future 10MW wind turbine. The simulations are performed with and without a slamming wave load. The slamming has a clear effect on the tower top acceleration. Accelerations due to the wave impact are highest for the 3MW model at the tower top and at 50m height. A serious tower top acceleration of almost 7m/s2 due to wave slamming is found for the 3MW turbine. This is an increase of 474% compared with the case of Morison wave loads only.


Author(s):  
Erik Jan de Ridder ◽  
Pieter Aalberts ◽  
Joris van den Berg ◽  
Bas Buchner ◽  
Johan Peeringa

The effects of operational loads and wind loads on offshore monopile wind turbines are well understood. For most sites, however, the water depth is such that breaking or near-breaking waves will occur causing impulsive excitation of the monopile and consequently considerable stresses and displacements in the monopile, tower and turbine. To investigate this, pilot model tests were conducted with a special model of an offshore wind turbine with realistic flexibility tested in (extreme) waves. This flexibility was considered to be necessary for two reasons: the impulsive loading of extreme waves is very complex and there can be an interaction between this excitation and the dynamic response of the foundation and tower. The tests confirmed the importance of the topic of breaking waves: horizontal accelerations of more than 0.5g were recorded at nacelle level in extreme cases.


Author(s):  
Henrik Bredmose ◽  
Niels G. Jacobsen

Extreme wave loads from breaking waves on a monopile foundation are computed within a 3D CFD model. The wave impacts are obtained by application of focused wave groups. For a fixed position of the monopile, the focus location of the wave group is varied to produce impacts with front shapes that varies from early stages of breaking to broken waves. The CFD results for in-line force are compared to load estimates obtained from the Morison equation. The peak loads determined with this simple method are smaller than those of the CFD solution. The computational results appear to suggest that for the impacts of spilling breakers the peak force gets smaller the more developed the breaking is. This is in qualitative agreement with a finding from shallow water impacts on vertical walls: the strongest wave loads are associated with breakers that hit the structure with slightly overturning front. Extensions of the study are discussed.


Author(s):  
Vipin Chakkurunni Palliyalil ◽  
Panneer Selvam Rajamanickam ◽  
Mayilvahanan Alagan Chella ◽  
Vijaya Kumar Govindasamy

The main objective of the paper is to investigate wave impact forces from breaking waves on a monopile substructure for offshore wind turbine in shallow waters. This study examines the load assessment parameters relevant for breaking wave forces on a vertical circular cylinder subjected to breaking waves. Experiments are conducted in a shallow water flume and the wave generation is based on piston type wave maker. The experiments are performed with a vertical circular cylinder with diameter, D = 0.20m which represents a monopile substructure for offshore wind turbines with regular waves of frequencies around 0.8Hz. The experimental setup consists of a 1/10 slope followed by a horizontal bed portion with a water depth of 0.8m. Plunging breaking waves are generated and free surface elevations are measured at different locations along the wave tank from wave paddle to the cylinder in order to find the breaking characteristics. Wave impact pressures are measured on the cylinder at eight different vertical positions along the height of the cylinder under breaking waves for different environmental conditions. The wave impact pressures and wave surface elevations in the vicinity of the cylinder during the impact for three different wave conditions are presented and discussed.


Author(s):  
Tim Bunnik ◽  
Joop Helder ◽  
Erik-Jan de Ridder

The effects of operational wave loads and wind loads on offshore mono pile wind turbines are well understood. For most sites, however, the water depth is such that breaking or near-breaking waves will occur causing impulsive excitation of the mono pile and consequently considerable stresses, displacements and accelerations in the mono pile, tower and turbine. Model tests with a flexible mono pile wind turbine were carried out to investigate the effect of breaking waves. In these model tests the flexibility of the turbine was realistically modelled. These model tests were used for validation of a numerical model for the flexible response of wind turbines due to breaking waves. A focusing wave group has been selected which breaks just aft of the wind turbine. The numerical model consists of a one-way coupling between a CFD model for breaking wave loads and a simplified structural model based on mode shapes. An iterative wave calibration technique has been developed in the CFD method to ensure a good match between the measured and simulated incoming wave profile. This makes a deterministic comparison between simulations and measurements possible. This iteration is carried out in a 2D CFD domain (long-crested wave restriction) and is therefore relatively cheap. The calibrated CFD wave is then simulated in a (shorter) 3D CFD domain including a (fixed) wind turbine. The resulting wave pressures on the turbine have been used to compute the modal excitation and subsequently the modal response of the wind turbine. The horizontal accelerations resulting from this one-way coupling are in good agreement with the measured accelerations.


Author(s):  
Anne M. Fullerton ◽  
Thomas C. Fu ◽  
Edward S. Ammeen

Impact loads from waves on vessels and coastal structures are highly complex and may involve wave breaking, making these changes difficult to estimate numerically or empirically. Results from previous experiments have shown a wide range of forces and pressures measured from breaking and non-breaking waves, with no clear trend between wave characteristics and the localized forces and pressures that they generate. In 2008, a canonical breaking wave impact data set was obtained at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, by measuring the distribution of impact pressures of incident non-breaking and breaking waves on one face of a cube. The effects of wave height, wavelength, face orientation, face angle, and submergence depth were investigated. A limited number of runs were made at low forward speeds, ranging from about 0.5 to 2 knots (0.26 to 1.03 m/s). The measurement cube was outfitted with a removable instrumented plate measuring 1 ft2 (0.09 m2), and the wave heights tested ranged from 8–14 inches (20.3 to 35.6 cm). The instrumented plate had 9 slam panels of varying sizes made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and 11 pressure gages; this data was collected at 5 kHz to capture the dynamic response of the gages and panels and fully resolve the shapes of the impacts. A Kistler gage was used to measure the total force averaged over the cube face. A bottom mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) was used to obtain measurements of velocity through the water column to provide incoming velocity boundary conditions. A Light Detecting and Ranging (LiDAR) system was also used above the basin to obtain a surface mapping of the free surface over a distance of approximately 15 feet (4.6 m). Additional point measurements of the free surface were made using acoustic distance sensors. Standard and high-speed video cameras were used to capture a qualitative assessment of the impacts. Impact loads on the plate tend to increase with wave height, as well as with plate inclination toward incoming waves. Further trends of the pressures and forces with wave characteristics, cube orientation, draft and face angle are investigated and presented in this paper, and are also compared with previous test results.


Author(s):  
Ben de Sonneville ◽  
Bas Hofland ◽  
Amund Mowinckel ◽  
Bo Terp Paulsen

Aibel is developing an offshore power converter platform concept. Its foundation is gravity-based and consists of four columns interconnected by a ring-shaped pontoon at the seabed. The platform is intended for water depths in the order of 20 to 40m. In these waters, breaking waves typically cause large wave loads on the foundation that need to be accounted for in the design. The slamming loads, pressures and air gap at the platform were investigated with a combined approach of physical and numerical modeling. This paper summarizes the set-up, test program, measurement techniques, results and analysis of the physical model tests. The tests showed that reflection and diffraction patterns caused a significant steepening of the waves between the columns, reducing the air gap and increasing the slamming frequency and magnitude on the downstream columns and underside of the deck. Excitation of resonant wave modes was identified for certain wave frequencies. Although the global wave loads were primarily governed by inertia, largest loads occurred under slamming impacts on the upstream columns, in phase with the inertial force.


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