Performance of a Two-Phase Flow Solver for the Simulation of Breaking Waves

Abstract

Wave breaking is one of the most violent phenomena observed in air-water interface interactions. This phenomenon commonly occurs in real ship flows and is one of the main sources of underwater noise and white-water wakes. The investigation of this phenomenon is thus important in ship and ocean engineering. The performance of a two-phase flow solver is investigated for a simulation of spilling breaking waves generated by a shallowly submerged hydrofoil (NACA0024) in a uniform flow. An algebraic Volume of Fluid (AVOF) method is applied to capture the dynamic behaviour of the free surface and a standard k-ε turbulence model is selected to capture the turbulent flow around and downstream of the hydrofoil. The wave profiles, pressure and velocity contours are computed to investigate the overall flow conditions and a detailed analysis of the flow field downstream of the hydrofoil is conducted in terms of velocity components and turbulence intensities at six measurement sections. A comparison of the numerical and experimental results shows that an accurate representation of the free surface and the turbulent flow beneath it is obtained with the present numerical scheme. It is expected that the systematic documentation of the performance of the AVOF two-phase solver will enable its more accurate and optimal use for simulating ship-related flows, as well as increase awareness of its potential shortcomings for those interested in general CFD simulation of breaking waves.