RANS Simulations of a Calm Buoy in Regular and Irregular Seas using the SWENSE Method

Abstract

This article recalls the recent developments of the SWENSE (Spectral Wave Explicit Navier-Stokes Equations) method and presents a first validation case for a multidirectional irregular wave field. The SWENSE approach is aimed at simulating fully nonlinear wave-body interactions including viscous effects. It combines the benefits of a potential flow theory used to compute the incident waves and of a Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations (RANSE) solver used to obtain the diffracted field in the full domain. As an illustrative application, this article focuses on the case of a captive CALM (Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring) buoy. A full set of wave fields can be generated and the study deals successively with regular waves, head irregular waves and multidirectional head waves. The sharp geometry of the model makes this test case difficult for traditional potential codes and comparatively interesting for the SWENSE method.