Numerical Simulation of Nonlinear Free Surface Water Waves: Coupling of a Potential Flow Solver to a URANS/VOF Code

Numerical simulation of free surface water waves using various wave models is studied. The performance of the wave models is compared in three test cases in 2D, all of which include a focusing event. Then the attention is focused on coupling one of these wave models to a URANS/VOF code, ReFRESCO. Here the strong suits of both solvers are utilized to simulate nonlinear water waves in an accurate and efficient manner. Even though only simulating nonlinear waves is discussed in this paper, the main purpose of the coupling approach is to simulate hydrodynamic wave loading on structures and wave-structure interaction. Computational cost, convergence behavior and effects of grid refinement are some of the topics that are also discussed throughout the paper.