A Numerical Study On The Water Impact of The Rigid
A Numerical Study On The Water Impact of The Rigid
A Numerical Study On The Water Impact of The Rigid
333–342
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13344-023-0027-1, ISSN 0890-5487
http://www.chinaoceanengin.cn/ E-mail: [email protected]
Received August 13, 2022; revised November 8, 2022; accepted January 29, 2023
©2023 Chinese Ocean Engineering Society and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature
Abstract
Recent damages to the box-like structures caused by wave slamming have made it necessary to study the impact
problems of this kind of structure. This paper showed findings from numerical simulations of the rigid/elastic struc-
tures, aiming to gain insights into the characteristics of the problem. The results of the rigid cases showed the significance
of air compressibility during the impact process, while the slamming phenomena became quite different without the
effect. In the elastic cases, the trapped air made the structure vibrate at frequencies much smaller than its eigenfre-
quencies. Besides, the structural deformation made it easy for the trapped air to escape outwards, which weakened
the air cushioning effect, especially at high impact velocities. The above analysis gives the results when the structural
symmetry axis was vertical to the water (vertical impacts). In addition, the results were given when the axis was
oblique to the water (oblique impacts). Compared with the vertical cases, the impact phenomena and structural
response showed asymmetry. This work used the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method to describe fluid
motion and the finite element method (FEM) for the deformable structure. A two-way coupling approach was used to
deal with the fluid−structure interaction in the elastic cases.
Key words: water impact, fluid-structure interaction, air compressibility, box-like structures, two-way coupling
Citation: Yang, J., Sun, Z.C., Liang, S.X., 2023. A numerical study on the water impact of the rigid/elastic box-like structure. China Ocean Eng.,
37(2): 333–342, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13344-023-0027-1
the results on the shared boundaries in each time step. For water surface, the velocity was about 1 m/s. A measuring
the FSI problem, the fluid velocity (uinterface ) should be the point (P1) was set at the bottom of the plate to record the
same as the solid velocity ( ṡinterface): uinterface = ṡinterface . At time history of the pressure. The point was 0.185 m away
the same time, the interface forces acting on the fluid and from the left end of the plate. By the way, the overset mesh
the solid should be equal in magnitude and opposite in approach was adopted in this validation.
direction (Young et al., 2012). The calculation procedure of Fig. 3 shows the free surface profiles in the simulation.
the present problem can be described as follows: Before the One can observe a thin layer of air trapped between the
simulation, one should establish the sub-models and the plate bottom and the water surface. As the impact continued,
connections between the solvers, which include the model the air layer broke into small parts and gradually disap-
settings in each sub-solver, the interface for data transfers, peared. The phenomenon can reveal air entrapment and
and data mappings. The mapping process is needed because agree with the rigid case of Tödter et al. (2020). Fig. 4
the solvers usually use different meshes. shows the time history of pressure at P1 obtained from the
Then during the calculation, the iteration between the present simulation and the experiment. The agreement is
solvers will continue until the quantities reach equilibrium good, especially in the initial time. Then the difference
on the interface besides the calculation in each sub-solver, slightly increases. A possible reason is that the present
and then a new time step begins. Specifically, Fig. 2 may model cannot capture the tiny air bubbles properly. Despite
represent a typical iteration process between the fluid and this, the numerical model could capture the main effect of
the structure solvers for the present problem. air entrapment. However, more accurate models are necessary
if future studies aim to resolve air bubbles.
Fig. 2. A schematic of the iteration process between the solvers for the
present problem.
3 Validation
The numerical method was validated from various
aspects, which include the two-way partitioned method, the
compressible two-phase flow model for water impacts, and Fig. 3. Free surface profiles from the numerical simulation. It can be seen
the convergence analysis. Firstly, we validated the two-way that air was trapped underneath the plate bottom. The phenomenon agrees
partitioned approach for the fluid−structure interaction. The with the snapshots of the rigid case (Tödter et al., 2020).
drop test of an elastic flat plate (Faltinsen et al., 1997) was
simulated, and the numerical results can agree with the
experimental data (Faltinsen et al., 1997; Aghaei et al.,
2020). More details can be found in our previous work
(Yang et al., 2022).
and the k−ω model and has been applied to different impact
problems (Xiang et al., 2020; Jiang et al., 2021; Wang et al.,
2022).
Fig. 7 shows the free profiles during the water impact
obtained with different meshes. Specifically, Figs. 7(a1) and
Fig. 5. A schematic of the rigid/elastic water impact problem (In the fig-
5(a2) show the free surfaces when the impact load nearly
ure, L1= 1.844 m, L2 = 0.312 m, H = 3 m, and W = 5 m). The dashed line met the maximum value. Figs. 7(b1) and 7(b2) show the
shows the deformable parts in the elastic cases. In the x direction, the structure results during the pressure dropping time when the trapped
is located in the center of the computational domain. air was escaping outwards. It can be seen that a refined
Fig. 7. Local free profiles at specific moments obtained with different meshes and time step sizes. Specifically, (a1) and (a2) show the free surfaces at t =
0. 49 s; (b1) and (b2) show the free surfaces at t = 0.52 s. It is noted that (a2) and (b2) show the local views inside the red boxes of (a1) and (b1).
YANG Jian et al. China Ocean Eng., 2023, Vol. 37, No. 2, P. 333–342 337
mesh can give a more detailed description of the air−water Table 2 Positions of the pressure measuring points
interface, such as the small air bubbles against the walls Monitoring points Position
Point 1 x=2.50 m; y=2.151 m
(Figs. 7(a1) and 7(a2)). Besides, the free surfaces with same
Point 2 x=2.35 m; y=2.151 m
mesh sizes and different time step sizes had negligible dif- Point 3 x =2.65 m; y=2.151 m
ference. Point 4 x =2.35 m; y =2.0 m
Fig. 8 shows the time histories of the vertical force on Point 5 x =2.65 m; y =2.0 m
the structure. In general, different cases show similar results, Point 6 x =2.35 m; y =1.844 m
and mesh sizes have more significant influence than time Point 7 x =2.65 m; y =1.844 m
step sizes. As the water impact continues, the impact load
rises and drops. In the rising phase, the curves are similar. providing convenience for the comparison. Finally, consid-
However, as the impact forces meet the peak value and drop, ering the computational efficiency and the accuracy, the
the difference between the results becomes apparent. The mesh size of 2.5 mm and the time step of 0.1 ms were used
in the following simulations.
difference may be due to the fact that coarse meshes cannot
capture the air-water interface properly. With mesh refine- 4 Results and analysis
ment, the model may generate a more precise result. More- This section first gives brief introductions to the model
over, the results obtained with different time steps are close. settings. Then the results of the different cases are given. In
There is only a small difference at the end of the simulation this work, the vertical impacts refer to the cases where the
when the pressure drops, which has a negligible influence structural symmetry axis is vertical to the water, and the
during the simulation time. The difference may be related to oblique impacts refer to the cases where the axis is oblique
the local air−water interface. A smaller time step should to the water.
capture the water-air interface more properly. The same
conclusion can be drawn from Fig. 9, which shows the time 4.1 Model settings of the rigid/elastic cases
histories of pressure at Point 1 (The point is given in Fig. 6 The dimensions of the fluid domain are given in Fig. 5.
and Table 2). The point was chosen because it was mainly The impact velocities were v = 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 m/s in the
affected by air compression and expansion. Therefore, the simulations. Fig. 6 gives the sketch of the box-like structure.
pressure could avoid large variations in most impact events, It has the same width and height of 0.312 m. A measuring
point, Point A, was set to record the structural response.
Besides, seven measuring points were located on the inner
surface of the model to monitor the pressure signals. The
details are given in Table 2, too.
For the elastic structure, the fixed support was set on its
upper surface, while the other parts were deformable. The
model parameters of the elastic structure are summarized in
Table 3.
Fig. 11. Velocity fields and the pressure distributions (v = 4 m/s). (a1)−(d1) (or (a2)−(d2)) show the results at t = 0.48, 0.50, 0.51, and 0.52 s. It is noted
that the black line represents the free surface.
Fig. 13. Time histories of the vertical force in the rigid cases with/without
air compressibility. The impact velocity is v = 4 m/s. (co-rigid-4 m/s: the
Fig. 12. Water profiles at different moments (t = 0.46, 0.48, 0.50, 0.52, compressible case; ico-rigid-4 m/s: the incompressible case). The detail
and 0.54 s) obtained by the CFD method without air compressibility. view in the top right corner shows the result at t = 0.46−0.47 s.
YANG Jian et al. China Ocean Eng., 2023, Vol. 37, No. 2, P. 333–342 339
Fig. 14. Local velocity field around the structure obtained from the incompressible case. Specifically, the black line represents the free surface, the vector
length is uniformed, and the contour shows the velocity magnitude. (a)−(h), t = 0.462, 0.463, 0.464, 0.465, 0.466, 0.467, 0.468, 0.469 s.
pressure dropped sharply. The asymmetric distribution of at Point A. Compared with the rigid cases in Section 4.2,
the velocity field (Fig. 14b) could suggest the air entrapment there are significant fluctuations on these curves, suggesting
and the push by high pressure. With the water kept rising, the influence of structural elasticity.
the air would be trapped and induce a new impact again Fig. 18 shows a synchronization analysis of the force
(Figs. 14c−14h). However, with the trapped air decreasing, and the structural displacement. The impact process can be
it became more difficult for the air to escape. Finally, the divided into two phases by the moment “a” (dashed line in
amount of air became constant, and the oscillation settled the figure). Before this time, the impact force and the struc-
down. tural deformation increased simultaneously. After this time,
Fig. 15 compares the maximum pressure at the measuring
points in the two cases. In the compressible cases, the points
close to the structure opening had smaller values than the
other points, and the maximum relative difference can be up
to 50%, occurring at v=10 m/s, while in the incompressible
case, the monitoring points had similar values. The incom-
pressible case had much higher pressures than the com-
pressible cases.
Fig. 16. Relationships between the impact force (Fv) and Vt /L1, obtained
from the elastic cases. Impact velocity v = 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 m/s.
Fig. 19. Water profiles, velocity fields, and the pressure distributions in the elastic case (v = 4 m/s) at t = 0.48, 0.50, 0.51, and 0.52 s. It is noted that the
black line represents the free surface.
Fig. 20. The maximum pressures in the elastic cases (v = 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 Fig. 21. FFT spectrums of the structural deformation (in the y-axis),
m/s; Co-elas-: Elastic cases with air compressibility). obtained from the elastic cases with different velocities.
YANG Jian et al. China Ocean Eng., 2023, Vol. 37, No. 2, P. 333–342 341
Fig. 24. Time histories of pressure at the monitoring points (Points 1−7).
Fig. 23. Time histories of the impact force in the vertical case (along the y-
axis) and the oblique case (along the y′-axis).