In recent years, our research group has been developing a meshfree method based on Meshless Local Petrov Galerkin Method using Rankin source function (MLPG_R) and recently improved the methodology for the smooth pressure evaluation (IMLPG_R), as reported in the previous ISOPE conference papers. As it is well known that the particle methods that solve Navier Stokes (NS) equation is time consuming when the waves propagate over a long tank or for a long simulation time. One way to overcome this is to couple the NS solver with the solver based on Fully Nonlinear Potential Theory (FNPT). In this paper, novel algorithms were employed to couple the FNPT solver (based on Finite Element method developed by Sriram et al., 2006) and NS solver (Sriram and Ma, 2010). The new coupled model has been applied to a regular wave simulation.
The available numerical models for the simulation of nonlinear wave and structure interactions are currently based on solving either the fully nonlinear potential flow theory (FNPT) or using the Navier Stokes (NS) equations. The test cases reported in the literatures using these models showed a good agreement with the experimental measurements. However, the application of these numerical models to the more general purpose cases are limited, for example reproducing the wave scenarios from offshore to coastal zone, to reproduce large scale test cases like one of the world largest wave channel in Hannover (GWK tank). The reason is that one needs to capture both non-breaking and breaking process accurately as close as possible, so the applicability of the either of these two models are limited due to the physical assumptions involved in the model. Wherein, using FNPT one can simulate highly stable and long time simulations with longer computational domain, but holds good only till the waves overturns.
