CFD Simulations on a partially submerged cylinder under regular waves using OpenFOAM

Abstract

In this Master Thesis, an overview of the performance and applicability of IHFoam numerical tool to offshore engineering related problems is presented. IHFoam is a recent numerical tool for wave modeling using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach, a set of boundary conditions for modelling of numerical wave tanks, compiled together within a well known CFD project, OpenFOAM\textregistered. This is being constantly developed by scientific research communities worldwide and is also stepping into the industry as a reliable and accurate tool providing solutions for multitude of engineering problems were fluids are present. Different sets of simulations, picked from the literature or experimental tests, aim the validation of this tool: i) simple two dimensional simulations where the waveform is confronted against theoretical solutions, are tailored for validation of the model, and ii) three dimensional simulations are included for completeness in order to investigate the loads exerted to a vertical cylinder in the middle of a numerical wave flume.