A Coupled Harmonic Polynomial Cell and Higher-Order Spectral Method for Nonlinear Wave Propagation

Abstract The present work deals with wave generation in fully nonlinear numerical wave tanks (NWT). As an alternative to modelling a moving (physical) wavemaker, a two-dimensional (2D) potential-flow NWT is coupled with an external spectral wave data (SWD) application programming interface (API). The NWT uses the harmonic polynomial cell (HPC) method to solve the governing Laplace equations for the velocity potential and its time derivative, and has previously been extensively validated and verified for numerous nonlinear wave-propagation problems using traditional wave-generation mechanisms. Periodic waves of different steepness generated with a stream-function theory as reference solution in the SWD API are first considered to investigate the method’s numerical accuracy. Thereafter, with a higher-order spectral method (HOSM) as the SWD API solution, irregular waves with different wave heights and water depths relevant for e.g. aquaculture and offshore structures are simulated. Differences between the HPC and HOSM solutions in and near steep crests are investigated. The study aims to demonstrate a robust method to generate and propagate general wave fields for further studies of nonlinear waves and wave-body interaction in both two and three dimensions.