Impact loads from waves on vessels and coastal structures are complex and may involve wave breaking, which has made these loads difficult to estimate numerically or empirically. Results from previous experiments have shown a wide range of forces and pressures measured from breaking and nonbreaking waves, with no clear trend between wave characteristics and the localized forces and pressures that they generate. In 2008, a canonical breaking wave impact data set was obtained at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, by measuring the distribution of impact pressures of incident nonbreaking and breaking waves on one face of a cube. This experimental effort was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), under the Dynamics of Interacting Platforms Program, Program Manager Dr. Ron Joslin. The effects of wave height, wavelength, face orientation, face angle, and submergence depth were investigated. Additionally, a limited number of runs were made at low forward speeds, ranging from about 0.5 to 2 knots (0.26 to 1.03 m/s).

Numerical simulations of wedge impact experiments, undertaken by the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, NSWCCD, and more recently by the United States Naval Academy, USNA, Hydromechanics Laboratory, were performed using the computational fluid dynamics code Numerical Flow Analysis, NFA, to assess its capabilities in simulating the short duration hydrodynamic loading associated with free-surface impact. NSWCCD performed experiments using drop heights of 15.24 cm (6 in) and 25.4 cm (10 in), while the Naval Academy used drop heights of: 7.94, 12.7, 15.88, 25.4, 31.75, 38.1, and 50.8 cm (3.125, 5.0, 6.25, 10.0, 12.5, 15.0, and 20.0 in), measured from the keel of the wedge to the calm water surface. Simulations and comparisons were made at heights of 15.24 cm (6 in) and 25.4 cm (10 in) with the NSWCCD data, and 12.5 inches for the USNA data providing for a detailed examination of NFA’s ability to simulate and predict short duration hydrodynamic impacts.

The ability of three wave theories to predict statistics and the crest kinematics of a seaway is quantified. The three wave theories are high-order spectral (HOS) theory, free-surface mapping (FSM), and volume-of-fluid (VOF). Issues associated with applying these methods are discussed, including free-surface adjustment, smoothing and filtering, and forcing. Two long-crested regular waves with varying bandwidth and moderate steepness are used to benchmark the performance of the wave theories. As a more stringent test, a broad-banded long-crested seaway is simulated.

We attempt to gain some insight into the modeling of the generation of internal waves produced by submarines traveling in the littoral regions of the ocean with the use of high fidelity numerical simulations. These numerical simulations are shown to be capable of simulating high Reynolds number flow around bodies, including the effects of stable stratification. In addition, we use the results of these detailed numerical studies to test and revise the source distribution parameterizations of the near-field waves that have been used in analytical studies based on linear theory. Such parameterizations have been shown to be useful in initializing ray-tracing schemes that can be used for computing wave propagation through realistic oceans with variable background properties. For simplicity, we focus on the idealized case of a spherical body traveling horizontally at constant speed through a uniformly stratified fluid.

The formulation of a canonical deep-water breaking wave problem is introduced, and the results of a set of three-dimensional numerical simulations for deep-water breaking waves are presented. In this paper fully nonlinear progressive waves are generated by applying a normal stress to the free surface. Precise control of the forcing allows for a systematic study of four types of deep-water breaking waves, characterized herein as weak plunging, plunging, strong plunging, and very strong plunging.

The impact of a plunging breaking wave (wavelength approximately 1.3m) on a rigidly mounted rigid cube structure (dimension 0.31m) that is partially submerged is explored through experiments and numerical calculations. The experiments are carried out in a wave tank and the breaker is generated with a mechanical wave maker using a dispersive focusing technique. The water-surface profile upstream of the front face of the cube and in its vertical centerplane is measured using a cinematic laser-induced fluorescence technique. The three-dimensional flow in the wave tank is simulated directly using the Numerical Flow Analysis (NFA) code. The experiments and the calculations are used to explore the details of the wave-impact process and, in particular, the formation of the high-speed vertical jet that is found on the front face of the cube under some impact conditions.

Cartesian-grid methods in combination with immersed-body and volume-of-fluid methods are ideally suited for simulating breaking waves around ships. A surface panelization of the ship hull is used as input to impose body-boundary conditions on a three-dimensional cartesian grid. The volume-of-fluid portion of the numerical algorithm is used to capture the free-surface interface, including the breaking of waves. The numerical scheme is implemented on a parallel computer. Recent improvements to the numerical scheme are discussed, including implementation of a new multigrid procedure and conversion to MPI communication. Numerical predictions are compared to laboratory measurements of a towed transom-stern model.

The flow field generated by a transom stern hull form is a complex, broad-banded, three-dimensional system marked by a large breaking wave. This unsteady multiphase turbulent flow feature is difficult to study experimentally and simulate numerically. Recent model-scale experimental measurements and numerical predictions of the wave-elevation topology behind a transom-sterned hull form, Model 5673, are compared and assessed in this paper. The mean height, surface roughness (RMS), and spectra of the breaking stern-waves were measured by Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) and Quantitative Visualization (QViz) sensors over a range of model speeds covering both wet- and dry-transom operating conditions. Numerical predictions for this data set from two Office of Naval Research (ONR) supported naval-design codes, Numerical Flow Analysis (NFA) and CFDship-Iowa-V.4, have been performed. Comparisons of experimental data, including LiDAR and QViz measurements, to the numerical predictions for wet-transom and dry transom conditions are presented and demonstrate the current state of the art in the simulation of ship generated breaking waves. This work is part of an ongoing collaborative effort as part of the ONR Ship Wave Breaking and Bubble Wake program, to assess, validate, and improve the capability of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).

A fully nonlinear, three-dimensional numerical model is developed for the simulation of tidal flow over arbitrary bottom topography in an ocean with realistic stratification. The model is capable of simulating accurately the generation of fine-scale internal wave tidal beams, their interaction with an ocean thermocline and the subsequent generation of solitary internal waves that propagate on this thermocline. Several preliminary simulation results are shown for uniform and non-uniform flow over an idealized two-dimensional ridge, which are compared with linear theory, and for flow over an idealized twodimensional continental shelf.

In order to support development of computational fluid dynamics codes for high-speed, small-craft applications, laboratory experiments were performed on a representative of Deep-V planing craft model. The measurements included resistance, sinkage and trim, hull pressure measurements, longitudinal wavecuts, and bow-wave and stern-wake topologies. The model was towed in calm water over a speed range of 1.78 to 14.2 m/s (5.8 to 46.6 ft/s) corresponding to a Froude number range of 0.31 to 2.5. At planing speeds, +8 m/s (+26.2 ft/s), the model was run with the addition of trim tabs set at two different angles, 7 and 13 degrees. Photographic documentation, including still photographs and video, was recorded during the collection of all the data. Numerical simulation of the flow field was performed utilizing the Numerical Flow Analysis (NFA) code and compared to the model test results.

The impact forces generated by the impact of a breaking wave are poorly understood. These impulsive hydrodynamic loads to a ship's hull are of short duration relative to ship motions and buoyant wave loads and often result in extremely high pressures. The physics of breaking waves is a poorly understood, complex, multiphase phenomenon involving violent jet sprays, strong free-surface turbulence, air entrainment and bubble generation, all of which interact with the flow field and the adjacent structure. This paper will describe a set of experiments that were performed, at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD), in 2006, to measure the hydrodynamic loads of regular nonbreaking and focused breaking waves on a 0.305 m x 0.305 m (1.0 ft x 1.0 ft) square plate and discuss the results of this study. The paper will also discuss Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code predictions of breaking waves and wave impact loads. The CFD code utilized in this study is Numerical Flow Analysis (NFA).

Over the past few years much progress has been made in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in its ability to accurately simulate the hydrodynamics associated with a deep-V monohull planing craft. This work has focused on not only predicting the hydrodynamic forces and moments, but also the complex multiphase free-surface flow field generated by a deep-V monohull planing boat at high Froude numbers. One of these state of the art CFD codes is Numerical Flow Analysis (NFA). NFA provides turnkey capabilities to model breaking waves around a ship, including both plunging and spilling breaking waves, the formation of spray, and the entrainment of air. NFA uses a Cartesian-grid formulation with immersed body and volume-of-fluid methods.

Fluid Dynamics Video submitted to the Gallery of Fluid Motion at the 2010 APS Division of Fluid Dynamics annual meeting.

— High resolution numerical simulations of a sphere traveling horizontally at constant speed at high Reynolds number through a uniformly stratified fluid are shown to compare well with previ-ous laboratory experimental measurements of the drag and the internal wave field. The results of these detailed numerical studies are used to test and revise source distribution parameterizations of the near-field waves that have been used in ana-lytical studies based on linear theory. Such parameterizations have been shown to be useful in initializing ray-tracing schemes that can be used efficiently to compute wave propagation through realistic oceans with variable background properties.

This article describes the fluid dynamics video, "A Numerical Simulation of a Plunging Breaking Wave", which was submitted to the gallery of fluid motion at the 2009 APS/DFD conference. The simulation was of a deep-water plunging breaking wave. It was a two-phase calculation which used a Volume of Fluid (VOF) method to simulate the interface between the two immiscible fluids. Surface tension and viscous effects were not considered. The initial wave was generated by applying a spatio-temporal pressure forcing on the free surface. The video shows the 50% isocontour of the volume fraction from several different perspectives. Significant air entrainment is observed as well as the presence of stream-wise vortex structures.