Development of a two-dimensional coupled smoothed particle hydrodynamics model and its application to nonlinear wave simulations

Abstract

This paper presents a two dimensional two-way coupled model combining Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) based on the Navier–Stokes equations (NSE) and OceanWave3D based on the fully nonlinear potential flow theory (FNPT) in order to efficiently simulate non-linear waves and wave–structure interaction problems. The two models are strongly coupled in space and time domains using a fixed overlapping zone, wherein the information from both solvers is exchanged by relaxation functions. In the SPH model, an open relaxation boundary, which is implemented as open and relaxation zones, is used in the coupling region. Horizontal velocity and free surface elevation in the open and relaxation zones are obtained from OceanWave3D, while vertical velocity and density in the open zones are interpolated from the relaxation region. OceanWave3D requires the free surface elevation and vertical velocity at the free surface from SPH in the coupled region. The coupled model is tested by modelling a regular wave, irregular wave and wave over a submerged bar and an oscillating water column (OWC) device. The results demonstrate that the coupled model can produce satisfactory results with less computational time than the SPH-only model.