The Numerical Wave Tank (NWT) group of the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers was established at the 5th ISOPE conference in The Hague (1995) by Prof. C.H. Kim (Texas A & M University). This group is open freely to everybody interested in this topic. It is aimed at developing links between active researchers in the field of the numerical simulation of free surface waves, their generation and their interaction with solid bodies. The activities of the group will tend to:
Prompt the concept of numerical wave tank in the scientific community,
Exchange experience between participants in a friendly spirit, exempt from competition attitude,
Build and maintain a free access data bank on selected benchmarks.
At the 6th ISOPE conference in Los Angeles (1996), A.H. C16ment was elected by the participants as the group leader. It was also decided that the mandate of group leader is two years. During the NWT group meeting at the 7th conference in Honolulu (1997), the concept of Numerical Wave Tank was clarified by the participants. Numerical Wave Tanks are computer codes whose final goal is to reproduce physical wave basins as closely as possible. They must present at least the following features :
free surface flow dominated by gravity in a bounded domain,
fully non-linear boundary conditions (free-surface, floating body)
simulation in the time-domain
physical wave generation (moving wall or varying pressure)
finite constant depth Extra properties may possibly be accounted for as for instance: viscosity, surface tension, sediment transport, wave breaking, current, uneven bottom, sloping beaches, fixed bodies, floating bodies, other modes of generation.
