Wave run-up and wave impact cause unexpected damage to the offshore platforms. To design a platform against wave impact one must accurately estimate the wave scattering around large volume structures and the maximum run-up height. In this study, simulations of the wave run-up around a fixed vertical cylinder are conducted. The finite volume method (FVM) is employed for solving Navier-Stokes equations based on the open source codes of OpenFOAM. The wave elevations within a radial distance around the cylinder are monitored at several locations. The obtained results of wave run-up and scattering around the cylinder are compared with published experiment data. The results show the efficiency of the present numerical method for simulating wave run-up problems, and also provide useful guidance for designing platforms.
Wave run-up and wave impact can cause unexpected damage to offshore structures. Therefore, the design of offshore structures requires accurate predictions of the maximum wave elevation to maintain sufficient air gap below the platform deck. Accurate prediction of wave run-up can both help reducing building costs and avoid the risk of wave impact and damage to the platform. For the increasing number of offshore platforms built for ocean oil and gas exploration, the investigation of wave run-up becomes more and more significant for the design of fixed offshore structures. Wave run-up on circular cylinders has been studied experimentally and numerically in the past decades. Niedzwecki & Duggal (1992) performed a small-scale experiment to study the wave run-up on a truncated circular cylinder. Based on the experiments performed by MARINTEK (Nielsen, 2003) and Morris-Thomas & Thiagarajan (2004), a series of experimental data was published. The model test performed at MARINTEK was proposed as the ISSC benchmark study. The wave run-up results obtained by different numerical methods were proposed and compared with the MARINTEK data.
