Development of a Computational Fluid Dynamics Model to Simulate Three-Dimensional Gap Resonance Driven by Surface Waves

This paper expounds the process of successfully establishing a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to accurately reproduce experimental results of three-dimensional (3D) gap resonance between two fixed ship-shaped boxes. The ship-shaped boxes with round bilges were arranged in a side-by-side configuration to represent a floating liquefied natural gas offloading scenario and were subjected to NewWave-type transient wave groups. We employ the open-source CFD package OPENFOAM to develop the numerical model. Three-dimensional gap resonance differs from its two-dimensional (2D) counterpart in allowing spatial structure along the gap and hence multiple modes can easily be excited in the gap by waves of moderate spectral bandwidth. In terms of numerical setup and computational cost, a 3D simulation is much more challenging than a 2D simulation and requires careful selection of relevant parameters. In this respect, the mesh topology and size, domain size and boundary conditions are systematically optimized. It is shown that to accurately reproduce the experimental results in this case, the cell size must be adequate to resolve both the undisturbed incident waves and near-wall boundary layer. By using a linear iterative method, the NewWave-type transient wave group used in the experiment is accurately recreated in the numerical wave tank (NWT). Numerical results including time series of gap responses, resonant amplitudes and frequencies, and mode shapes show excellent agreement with experimental data.