A VIRTUAL PISTON-TYPE WAVE MAKER BASED ON OPENFOAM

OpenFOAM is an open source CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) toolbox and recently attracts many researchers to develop codes based on it for their own applications. In order to numerically generate waves based on the wave-maker theory for a piston motion, numerical improvements have been done on the base of OpenFOAM by the author. In gen- eral, the present new tool can be employed to simulate wave generation as long as the piston motion is given. This paper presents the related computational procedure and simulations for generating relatively long finite-amplitude waves ac- cording to Madsen’s second-order wave-maker theory. The sensitivities of the computed incident wave profile to grid density and time step are investigated for the case of generating a wave with permanent form. The simulation accuracy is validated by comparison with the analytical solution and available experimental data.

On the interaction between oncoming internal waves and a dense gravity current in a two-layer stratification

A series of laboratory experiments was conducted to investigate the dynamics of a dense gravity current flowing down an inclined slope into a two-layer stratification in the presence of oncoming internal interfacial waves. The experiment is set up such that the gravity current propagates towards a wave maker emitting interfacial waves such that the current and waves propagate in opposite directions. The results were compared with the case of gravity current without oncoming waves. The gravity current splits into a portion that inserts itself into the pycnocline as an interflow and another that propagates down the slope as an underflow, with the proportionality depending on the characteristics of the gravity current and the oncoming waves when they are present. The interflow is shown to arise from a combination of detrainment and the preferential insertion of fluid with density greater than the upper layer and less than lower layer along the pycnocline. The mass flux of the interflow is observed to be reduced by the oncoming waves, as waves act to decrease the interflow velocity. The internal waves also increase the path length that the interflow must travel. A combination of reduced velocities and increased path length explains the observed reduction in cumulative flux. The trend of the final cumulative flux is consistent with the mass change observed by comparing density profiles obtained before and after the experiment.

Numerical Bichromatic Wave Generation Using Designed Mass Source Function

A mass source wave-maker method is generalized as the two-wave-source wave-maker method to generate bichromatic waves in the numerical model, whose governing equations are Navier–Stokes equations with the continuity equation. The Fluent software is taken as the calculation platform. In the numerical model, the waves at both the left and right ends of the numerical wave flume are absorbed with the momentum sources added in Navier–Stokes equations. The numerical simulation of bichromatic waves propagation with different frequencies in uniform deep, intermediate, and shallow water has been conducted. The numerical solutions are compared with the theoretical solutions obtained on the basis of Stokes waves theory. The frequency spectrum analyses of the results are conducted and discussed, and the differences between the weakly nonlinear theoretical solutions and the fully nonlinear numerical results are investigated in detail. It is found that the numerical model can effectively simulate the nonlinear effect of bichromatic waves in water with different depths, and the theoretical solutions only adapt the deep and intermediate water. The results indicate that the present numerical model is valuable in the aspect of practical application.

Gravity–capillary multi-component wave patterns generated by a single-frequency wave-maker oscillation and subsequent resonances

Cross-waves are standing waves with crests perpendicular to a wave-maker; they are subharmonic waves excited by parametric instability. The modulational and chaotic behaviours of nonlinear cross-waves have been studied widely since the 1970s. Most of the previous work has focused on gravity waves where surface tension can be neglected. In this work we study cross-waves that are highly dependent on surface tension as well as gravity. By oscillating a planar wave-maker either vertically or horizontally with frequencies of 25 Hz through 40 Hz at one end of a rectangular basin, two-dimensional multi-component surface patterns are realized. Using the free-surface synthetic Schlieren technique to measure the surface elevations, multi-dimensional Fourier transforms are utilized to track the evolutionary spectrum of the water surface in both the temporal and spatial domains. Wavelet transforms are implemented to show the development of the various frequency components. Three-wave resonances with and without first subharmonics are observed for small nonlinearity. Three-dimensional oblique propagating cross-waves are generated at higher nonlinearity; unlike most previous cross-wave experiments, this staggered pattern propagates far downstream. Experimental evidence shows that two oblique propagating waves form a two-dimensional short-crested pattern, and that the lateral component of the waves develops into parametric sloshing modes corresponding to the width of the tank. Two regimes of nonlinear wave patterns, resonant triads and oblique propagating cross-waves, are delineated.

CFD Modeling of Regular and Irregular Waves Generated by Flap Type Wave Maker

The improvement of wave generation in numerical tanks represents the key factor in ocean engineering development to save time and effort in research concerned with wave energy conversion. For this purpose, this paper introduces a numerical simulation method to generate both regular and irregular waves using Flap-Type wave maker. A 2D numerical wave tank model is constructed with a numerical beach technique, the independence of the numerical beach slope is tested to reduce the wave reflections. The different governing parameters of the Flap type wave maker were studied such as periodic time dependency and length of the flap stroke. The linear wave generated was validated against the wave maker theory WMT, the numerical results agreed with WMT. The Pierson-Moskowitz model is used to generate irregular waves with different frequencies and amplitudes. The numerical model succeeded to generate irregular waves which was validated against published experimental data and with Pierson-Moskowitz spectrum model using Fourier expansion theory in the frequency domain. Useful results are presented in this paper based on the numerical simulation to understand the characteristics of the waves. This paper produces a full guide to generate both regular and irregular waves numerically using ANSYS-CFX approach to solve the 2D Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes Equation (URANS).

Optimization of Segmented Wave-Maker Control to Generate Spatially Uniform Regular Waves in a Rounded-Rectangular Wave Basin

A wave field in a wave basin inevitably has spatial variation due to the wave’s cylindrical propagation property. Therefore, we aimed to develop an optimization method for the control of wave-makers to produce a spatially uniform wave field in a specified test zone inside a wave basin with an arbitrary arrangement of wave-makers. The optimization is based on the simulated annealing algorithm, a method for finding a globally optimal solution, which was combined with a numerical wave basin based on linear wave-maker theory. A wave generation experiment was performed in the actual sea model basin (80 m long, 40 m wide, and 4.5 m deep) at the National Maritime Research Institute to validate the proposed optimization method. A case study was conducted with a long-crested regular-wave with a wave height of 10 cm, wavelength of 4.0 m, and wave direction of 180 degrees, which corresponds to the longitudinal direction of the wave basin. A 40-m × 14-m test zone was set in the middle of the wave basin. The experimental results with and without the proposed optimization were compared, which confirmed that the spatial uniformity of the wave field was improved, and the coefficient of variation for the wave height in the test zone decreased from 0.127 to 0.029.

Generating Water Waves on Steady Currents Using Mass Source Wave Maker Coupled with Analytical Relaxation Wave Absorber

In order to numerically simulate the wave-current interaction problems frequently encountered by aquaculture structures, a two-dimensional numerical wave-current tank model was established here based on a mass source wave maker coupled with an analytical relaxation wave absorber. The wave-maker model and the wave-absorber model were embedded into a two-dimensional RANS solver, which was closed with RSM turbulence scheme. The volume of fluid (VOF) method was adapted to accurately capture the free surface between water and air. To generate a steady uniform current flow, the uniform current flow velocity was calculated at the left-hand-side (LHS) and right-had-side (RHS) outflow boundaries, respectively. Once the steady uniform current flow was generated over the whole computational domain, the target water wave was marked within a specified region by embedding the mass source function based on wave theory into the mass conservation equation and then propagated on the generated uniform current flow. To verify the accuracy of the numerical wave-current tank established here, some of the obtained numerical results were then compared with the experimental results and the analytical solutions, and they agreed well with each other, indicating that the model developed here has great ability in simulating water waves on uniform currents over constant water depth. The established numerical wave-current tank was then used to study the optimal layout of the mass source region and the effects of water current velocity on water surface wave parameters during regular wave coupling with uniform water currents. Meanwhile, the established model was extended to generate steep wave and apply in deep water conditions. Finally, the proposed methods were applied to investigate the wave-current-structure interaction problems and the propagation of solitary waves traveling with coplanar/counter currents. Model-data comparisons show that the developed model here is potentially useful and efficient for investigating the inevitable wave-current-structure interaction problems in aquaculture technologies.

Controllability and stabilization of gravity-capillary surface water waves in a basin

<p style='text-indent:20px;'>The paper concerns the controllability and stabilization of surface water waves in a two-dimensional rectangular basin under the forces of gravity and surface tension. The surface waves are generated by a wave-maker placed at the left side-boundary and it is physical relevant to see whether the surface waves are controllable or can be stabilized using appropriate motion of the wave-maker. Due to the surface tension, an edge condition must be imposed at the contact point between the free surface and a solid boundary. Two types of wave-makers are considered: "flexible" or "rigid". It is shown that the surface waves are approximately controllable, but not exactly controllable, for both "flexible" and "rigid" wave-makers. In addition, under a static feedback to control a "rigid" wave-maker, the strong stability of feedback control system is obtained.</p>

Suppression of Wind Ripples and Microwave Backscattering Due to Turbulence Generated by Breaking Surface Waves

The role of wave breaking in microwave backscattering from the sea surface is a problem of great importance for the development of theories and methods on ocean remote sensing, in particular for oil spill remote sensing. Recently it has been shown that microwave radar return is determined by both Bragg and non-Bragg (non-polarized) scattering mechanisms and some evidence has been given that the latter is associated with wave breaking, in particular, with strong breaking such as spilling or plunging. However, our understanding of mechanisms of the action of strong wave breaking on small-scale wind waves (ripples) and thus on the radar return is still insufficient. In this paper an effect of suppression of radar backscattering after strong wave breaking has been revealed experimentally and has been attributed to the wind ripple suppression due to turbulence generated by strong wave breaking. The experiments were carried out in a wind wave tank where a frequency modulated wave train of intense meter-decimeter-scale surface waves was generated by a mechanical wave maker. The wave train was compressed according to the gravity wave dispersion relation (“dispersive focusing”) into a short-wave packet at a given distance from the wave maker. Strong wave breaking with wave crest overturning (spilling) occurred for one or two highest waves in the packet. Short decimeter-centimeter-scale wind waves were generated at gentle winds, simultaneously with the long breaking waves. A Ka-band scatterometer was used to study microwave backscattering from the surface waves in the tank. The scatterometer looking at the area of wave breaking was mounted over the tank at a height of about 1 m above the mean water level, the incidence angle of the microwave radiation was about 50 degrees. It has been obtained that the radar return in the presence of short wind waves is characterized by the radar Doppler spectrum with a peak roughly centered in the vicinity of Bragg wave frequencies. The radar return was strongly enhanced in a wide frequency range of the radar Doppler spectrum when a packet of long breaking waves arrived at the area irradiated by the radar. After the passage of breaking waves, the radar return strongly dropped and then slowly recovered to the initial level. Measurements of velocities in the upper water layer have confirmed that the attenuation of radar backscattering after wave breaking is due to suppression of short wind waves by turbulence generated in the breaking zone. A physical analysis of the effect has been presented.