Numerical Wave Tank Simulation and Validation

Numerical wave tank (NWT) has an important application in the field of ship and ocean engineering, and many complicated hydrodynamic problems are investigated by NWT technology. Typically, for open boundary simulations, NWT is mainly divided into three regions, wave generation zone, main working region, and wave elimination area. The wave generation zone is used for wave generation, the working region is used for studying waves and wave–structure interaction, and the wave elimination area is used to eliminate reflected waves at the end of the tank. In this work, FLUENT is used to build a three-dimensional NWT model, do parameter sensitivity analysis, simulate the generation, propagation, and elimination procedure of linear wave and irregular wave, which is based on ITTC two-parameter spectrum, and verify the model with Wang Wei’s wave and deck interaction test. Finally, the simple shape floating body is simulated under the action of irregular waves. It is found that the numerical simulation results in this paper are in good agreement with the physical test results, indicating that the proposed method can be used to solve the problem of strong nonlinear interaction between waves and structures. Compared with physical model testing, numerical simulation has a low cost, saves time, and is more convenient to use.